by Rhys Ford
“You want to know what I think?” I didn’t take my eyes off of Kerrick, and my breath was beginning to mist over the window. “I think your grandmother can’t stand the idea of a court being established in her backyard without her dirty little fingers all through it. You waiting? That I understand. You had to gather up people and power because you knew you were going to move against her. You tried not to, but after the crap she pulled up in Elfhaine, you know she would try to undermine you because you deviate from how she runs her court. He isn’t down here because he cares about the elfin you’ve gathered up. He’s down here because your grandmother sent him.”
His laugh was low and slightly bitter. “And here I thought you didn’t understand Sidhe politics.”
“Oh, I understand them just fine,” I scoffed. “I just prefer the Unsidhe way of dealing with assholes who come into my yard to piss on my house. It’s why I carry all these knives.”
I HATED Kerrick on sight. A lot of it had to do with my surprisingly strong loyalty to Ryder, although I could’ve easily chalked it up to the infant nieces we shared. Mostly I hated how my body reacted to Kerrick. It wasn’t as intense as my initial response to Ryder—a driving need to slide myself under his skin and share his existence—but there was definitely something there.
And I hated myself for it. I hated being a creature of magics and instinct, driven by things outside of my control. I’d already lived so much of my life under someone else’s thumb. I hated to think I was nothing more than an animalistic monster beneath a veneer of humanity.
Up close, Kerrick was more than stunning. He was the kind of breathtakingly handsome that made sane people lose their minds. Luckily I only had a passing acquaintance with sanity, so I was safe. But Cari was not, and as much as I loved her, I was about ready to throw her into a closet and lock it to keep her safe.
Her hug was tight and quick, as fierce and small as she was. The only daughter of a Mexican witch and a German Stalker, Caridad Brent inherited her mother’s third eye and her father’s bloodlust. I’d seen her when she was wet from being born, and then as she grew up to be a Stalker like her dad. She was probably the best friend I’d ever had, and I thought of her as a little sister. She was also the biggest pain in my ass.
Right after Ryder.
And Dempsey.
“Why are you flinching? What happened?” she muttered into my chest when I returned her embrace. “Iesu, you’re like a rock. What’s got you all tense? Wait, let me guess. Kerrick.”
“He’s just the last on the list. You and me? We’ve got to talk.” I let her go just in time for Ryder’s cousin Alexa to grab me from behind. “Okay. Ribs are cracked. How about if the two of you let me go so I can stab you for bringing that asshole down the coast? Seriously, let go, Alexa. I’m bruised to hell and gone. Jonas and I took a bounty yesterday for a monster in the understreets, and the damn thing kicked my ass.”
“It’s just good to see you, Kai,” Alexa murmured against my neck as she brushed a soft kiss on my skin. “You smell like a cinnamon bun….” She took another sniff. “And liniment.”
They’d definitely done a Run, and it was kind of amusing to see Alexa mimicking Cari’s behavior. She wore her red-streaked magenta curls pulled back into a ponytail, much like Cari’s messy dark queue, and both had the slightly sticky feel of being caught in a car on a long haul. Even their eyes were a bit similar—Cari’s the smoky blue while Alexa’s were dappled with silver and gold, and despite her short time in a human city, Alexa had somehow found a pair of jeans long enough to fit her tall, slender body. The faded blue denim was nearly a mirror of Cari’s.
Alexa was a handsome woman with features too strong to be considered a Sidhe beauty, but I loved her animated face and enthusiastic smile. She was the most human of them all, a relatively young four-hundred-year-old elfin woman who’d become head of security for a new court and moonlighted as an apprentice Stalker on the side.
She was Ryder’s first cousin and often joked about having my children. At least it seemed like most of the time she was joking. Sometimes it was hard to tell. I doubted I would ever have children. How I was made… how I came to be… was pretty much in line with a mule. So, for all of her teasing about wanting purple-eyed babies, I didn’t think she was going to get very far.
There was also the matter of Ryder claiming I was his. Alexa didn’t poach on her cousin, and no matter my protests that I didn’t have a relationship with Ryder, she clearly stayed on that side of the line. Besides, there were signs of a deeper friendship forming between her and Cari, something I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about. Even if it was none of my business, an elfin and human relationship would only last as long as the human’s extremely short life—something I tried every day to avoid thinking about.
I’d convinced Ryder not to meet Kerrick in his personal apartments. I didn’t want to see the asshole measuring the windows for drapes, and Ryder surprisingly agreed. Instead I texted Cari to bring him to the court’s main hall—a long, broad gathering area filled with clusters of sitting areas and tables. It was apparently very different from Sebac’s main hall in Elfhaine, much more of a casual welcoming space than the rigid church-like pews she forced her clan to sit in while she lectured from a raised dais at the far end of the room.
There were other elfin in the space besides Kerrick, Cari, and Alexa when we came down, and Ryder said hello to everyone along the way and took his sweet time getting across to where they stood. The women came to meet me while Kerrick stood silently near a group of armchairs, watching and saying nothing when one of the Sidhe slipped past him with a tea tray she set down on a table.
That was more than enough to tell me what kind of man he was.
“Hello, Ryder, Clan Sebac, Third in the House of Devon.” Kerrick’s voice was a melodic roll of cultured Sidhe, and each syllable hammered against my soul.
The elfin’s native languages triggered a feeling of sick in me, echoing remnants of a binding spell my father had placed on me a long time ago. I’d broken it, or at least I thought it had faded, but every once in a while, some combination of words or maybe the tone of the speaker twisted my stomach into knots and reminded me of the iron I once wore under my skin.
Then I reheard in my head the words Kerrick spoke, and my rising anger chased down any vomit I might’ve chucked up.
“You forgot something in there. It’s Ryder, Clan Sebac, Third in the House of Devon, High Lord of the Southern Rise Court,” I corrected, and because of my promise to Ryder, I hooked my thumbs into the waistband of my jeans rather than reach for the knife tied to my thigh.
There were times I regretted any promise to Ryder, and that was one of them.
Kerrick’s eyes widened, and his black lashes threw shadows against his face. If his eyes were purple instead of teal, they would have resembled mine, with folds of dark pearl opal and hematite ringed with ebony, but their Caribbean hue was a startling contrast to the darker colors within them. Up close he was even more devastatingly handsome than I’d imagined, a type of symmetrical perfection the humans adored and the Sidhe glorified. Elfin beauty was probably as much the reason the war ended as was the truce the three governments hammered out. Humans loved beautiful things, and the images of fallen elfin lying next to their own dead were difficult for many to stomach.
Cute and fuzzy animals are less likely to become extinct, because someone with a soft heart will always speak up for their continued existence, no matter how dangerous the creatures might be. I’m sure there were studies on it. I knew it from experience, having seen a very green Stalker get her face eaten off by a tiny pink fluff ball with a surprisingly well-camouflaged mouth of rotating teeth because she leaned over and picked it up before any of us could stop her.
“Oh, by the gods and all the dragons, you are exquisite. Cousin, I’d heard he was astonishingly beautiful, but he goes beyond imagining. He is such a blend of our races—the wildness of the Unsidhe, but with the grace of our own kind. That black hair with�
�. It’s like midnight with swirls of stars,” Kerrick purred as he advanced on me. He lifted one elegant hand and reached for my face. “I can see why you—”
Fuck my promise to Ryder. I drew my knife and put its tip to the end of Kerrick’s nose. “Swear to fucking God, you touch me and Ryder won’t have to worry about you trying to claim what he’s already built up.”
“He doesn’t like to be touched, cousin.” Ryder’s smile was faint, but his eyes were dancing with laughter. “Kerrick, High Commander of Elfhaine, Clan Sebac, House of Levar, I would like you to meet Kai, Clan Gracen, Stalker and Defender of the Southern Rise Court.”
“Are we going to have to do this every single time I meet somebody? My name is Kai Gracen. That’s all you….” I tilted my head to look at Ryder and then shifted my gaze back toward his cousin. I ran the introduction back in my head. “Wait. Clan Sebac, House of Levar. Isn’t that the same as Alexa?”
“You’re right, Kai,” Alexa said, her words strangled with tight control. “We are of the same clan and house. You see, Kerrick is my brother.”
“YOU KNOW, as much as I love Alexa and Ryder, every time I come here I feel like I’m at a dinner party wearing a trash bag,” Cari grumbled as she flopped onto a couch.
We left the Sidhe cousins to talk among themselves, Kerrick rubbing at the tip of his nose, where I wasn’t ashamed to admit I was more than a little proud at the blood drop I’d left there. No matter how long I lived, I would never understand why people can’t keep their hands to themselves. Complaining about it to Cari would do me no good, because she hung on me like a fox stole most of the time, but we kind of grew up together, so her I didn’t mind.
It was just everybody else.
“I mean, look at them.” She gestured toward the other Sidhe roaming about the long space. “Everyone’s dressed like they’re about to go to a movie premiere instead of pulling weeds in the garden.”
She wasn’t wrong, but I’d been around enough Sidhe by then to know that’s just how they liked to live. Every minute was spent in a bit of hedonism despite the task ahead of them. Alexa and Ryder looked out of place in their jeans and T-shirts, donning sparrow feathers in a muster of peacocks. Whatever was going on between the three of them, it was heated, but Alexa shot me a quick smile before she turned her attention back to her brother, and as I was about to tell Cari about the run down to Mexico, Ryder winked at me.
“He’s such a dick,” I muttered as I filled Cari’s cup with a fruit-scented tea. “Did you know what Kerrick was up to before you agreed to bring him down?”
“No,” Cari replied. She worked the tie out of her ponytail, threaded her fingers through her dark hair, and sighed in relief as she massaged her scalp. “Do you think I would have let him in my car if I’d known? That one is going to be nothing but trouble. I told Alexa he’d be lucky if you didn’t stab him on sight. She owes me a tenner for that prick on his nose. I owe you a beer.”
“Do me one better.” Thankfully one of the teapots left for us was filled with coffee, and I poured myself what was probably my sixth cup of the day. It was weaker than I liked, practically see-through, but at that point, I didn’t care. “I’ve got a job coming up, maybe in a week and a half, maybe sooner. I want you to do the run with me. He might be shit or not at all, but I’ll give you what I can.”
“You don’t take a job for no pay unless it’s something serious.” Her mood went somber, and the energy in her body stilled as she leaned in to listen. “Whatever it is, I’m in.”
“There’s a lot of iffy pieces in this,” I began, trying to ignore the cousins as they moved away from the chairs to speak to an older Sidhe who was one of the architects of the towers. “Let me tell you what’s going on, and then you can decide if you want to join up.”
I was trying to reconcile the little girl I’d taught how to button her jacket and ride a bicycle, and even more recently, shoot a handgun, with a woman who was now not only a full-fledged Stalker, but also a trained hibiki—a witch with the ability to look into the eyes of the dead and see the last moments of their lives. We’d fought a bit lately about her coming on runs with me—not because she wasn’t competent, but because, in my mind, I was still teaching her how to take her first steps while she held a death grip on my index finger.
Cari was a third-generation Stalker raised in a family of hardened hunters who gave no quarter to any of its children, regardless of gender. Her mother was a plump, congenial woman who liked to stuff me with food but could also skin and bone a goat in about ten minutes flat. They were a practical people, willing to share their life skills and knowledge with an elfin chimera, so I was very reluctant to take their daughter on a mission she might not come back from.
She listened carefully as she turned her head aside to stare at an empty spot on the floor. It was a trick I’d taught her, a focusing technique I used to drown out the rest of the world around me and concentrate on what I needed to hear. I told her what I knew about the job and how Duffy believed Ryder’s power could protect the Unsidhe coming across the border. Her concentration broke when I brought up the children, and she lifted her eyebrows dramatically.
“Three? That’s an insane amount.” Cari let out a low whistle. “And she really believes someone is getting together a group of people to hunt them down? To kill them like one of the Wild Hunt’s black dogs?”
“I got the feeling the killing part is just the last of it.” I tamped down my anger and shoved back unasked-for memories. “Duffy doesn’t know who’s pulling this together, but she thinks Ryder might be able to get them to stop. The two people who helped her before have died, and the one person she’d been counting on refuses to cross this guy but won’t tell her who it is… or maybe doesn’t know and isn’t willing to risk it. Either way I’m going to be making the run, and Ryder insists on coming with me.”
“Of course he does.” Cari swore under her breath, asking a variety of saints for an extension on her patience. “He’s the damned high lord of this court, and he wants to go traipsing off on every single run you make?”
“No, just the ones that involve the Sidhe, their fertility, or gathering up street children like they’re dandelions in a field.” I’d lost sight of the trio, but the main hall was busier now, filling up with elfin coming to meet the new court jester. “He says it’s what a good leader does. How can he ask his people to push themselves if he doesn’t get his hands dirty? So Ryder’s coming along for the ride.”
“As am I,” Kerrick proclaimed as he broke out of a group of people to approach us. The worst part about being the only elfin among humans was that I forgot how keen our hearing was, since I was normally the only one who could hear a dog whistle. He stopped at my chair, his arm lifted up with his hand out, but he caught himself before he touched my shoulder. “If my cousin Ryder is going with you on Southern Rise business, I will as well. After all, this will be my court, much like you will be mine.”
Five
“THIS ISN’T some kid’s birthday party where you get an invitation just because you’re in the same class.” I stood up slowly and stepped into Kerrick’s space. He stood his ground, but his chin came up and his jaw tightened. “And before you get any cute ideas about who I am to you, just remember I don’t belong to this court. And I’d sooner gut your grandmother than spit on her if she were on fire.”
“Sebac said there was some unpleasantness she regretted.” Kerrick turned and shifted his hips as though to welcome a hastily approaching Ryder into the conversation. I snorted beneath my breath. It was a subtle way for him to save face, distancing our bodies in such a way as to appear as though he weren’t stepping back. “She would take it back if she could.”
“Grandmother only regrets gambling on my obligations and affection for Kai,” Ryder interjected. He settled his hand on my shoulder, and I schooled my face not to look at him or shift away. Sidhe politics were based on connections—I knew that much—and he was showing Kerrick he had rights that his cousin probably never would
. “She knew what she was doing. Her spells were meant to cripple him, maybe kill him. If you believe her lies, then you have no place here, cousin, because Kai is a crucial component to the survival of our races. He’s sacrificed so much and allowed us liberties no other Sidhe would give. Without the knowledge he’s willing to share with us, we are doomed to extinction.”
I just had to survive the touch, because it’d been a long time for me and I knew where there was a very large bed upstairs.
God, I hated how he could make me feel.
“I look forward to hearing your side of the story, Kai, Clan Gracen,” Kerrick conceded as he flipped the tails of his brocaded coat back in a short courtesy bow. “My purpose for being here is not to further our grandmother’s agendas, but rather to establish a strong court and anchor our place on this coast.”
“A strong court—this court—will include all elfin who wish to join it.” Ryder tightened his fingers on my shoulder. “You might think my methods are unorthodox, but as you’ve heard me say before, if we don’t change and adapt to this new world we’re living in, then we will die off. Our people must not only evolve. They must also thrive and work with the humans we now share this land with. Kai’s experience with the human culture and its social constructs are invaluable, and he’s proven himself by defending this court against those who would try to destroy it. And that includes our grandmother.”
“Let’s table your grandmother for right now, because unless she’s also coming along on this ride, she shouldn’t be taking a seat next to us.” I shifted my weight, which brought my side up against Ryder’s hip, and I immediately regretted it. I knew that even if I went on a weeklong tour of every brothel in San Diego, I wouldn’t burn off the itch I had for him. I took a deep breath and said, “There are only four places a party that large could easily cross, especially with the river swollen up from the rains. The one Duffy said they’ll be using is not difficult to get to, but it’s a long haul.”