by Rhys Ford
“Well, since they’re coming out inland instead of by the shore, that’ll make it harder to traverse. It’s a rough territory to cross normally, but right now it’s devil-storm season, so we’ll have to go underground for the first four miles and then come up through the aqueducts.” Cari stretched out her legs and leaned back into her chair. “We’re talking twenty miles of slogging through sewers and buried caverns and then another five or ten through scrub brush, probably carrying about fifty pounds of gear. Enough for ourselves and whatever we bring back.”
“I know of a way we can use a vehicle, but it’s as slow going as hiking. It’ll still lead us underground, but it’s longer. The exit point is about four miles away from where we would normally come up.” I tried not to breathe a sigh of relief when Ryder dropped his hand. “I think we’re going to have to go that way.”
I’d done the Mexican run at least twenty times before but mostly to hunt down ainmhi dubh that were terrorizing the farms beneath the devil canyons. I’d taken a vehicle to bring back pelts when I didn’t want to carry them back through the tunnels, but the way was definitely longer.
“Is that the one you did with Dad and Jonas that one time?” Cari curled her upper lip. “The other way’s a lot shorter. Less time on the road.”
“Yeah, we could get there sooner on foot, but we’re taking a wrung-out Unsidhe woman and three kids with us on the way back. They might not be able to make it the rest of the way. It’ll be easier if we can load them into a vehicle.” I didn’t like it either, but I also didn’t enjoy the idea of dragging an already-exhausted group of children through an underground wilderness while on foot. “I’m talking something like a long Jeep—transport only. We’d have to stop to let the cells recharge, but it’s better than walking. Also give us some cover when the Dusk Court in Mexico sends a Wild Hunt after them. No one’s just going to let her waltz out of there with those kids, no matter what race they are.”
“I’m coming with you. If Ryder goes, then I will as well,” Kerrick insisted. “I can do this. If anything, my cousin was never battle-tested. He—”
“He’s held his own on two runs.” Kerrick’s nostrils flared, but I wasn’t going to let him push me back. “And you don’t have a damned thing to say about who comes with me. Or did you miss the part about me not belonging to this court?”
“Kai, he’s not wrong.” Ryder’s words were a splash of cold on my temper. “He would serve you better than—”
“Do you want to come with me or not? I’ve got Cari on board. If you want him to take a seat on this damned ride, then fine, but you don’t go, he doesn’t go.” Ryder knew better, and I hated seeing him step aside for an ass hat with boundary issues. I got the “more flies with honey than vinegar” thing, but a rolled-up newspaper worked great too. “Who’s on the bus isn’t up for a group discussion.”
Kerrick scowled at me and straightened his shoulders. I was more than willing to go toe-to-toe with the asshole, but then Ryder nudged my shoulder and pulled my attention away. Ryder cleared his throat and cut through the building tension. “If you think you can find a vehicle to fit all of us, then yes, I want to go. The first Sidhe this woman meets should be the lord who is eager to take her into his court. Don’t you agree, cousin?”
“DO YOU want something to eat?” There wasn’t a lot in my fridge, but having food delivered was always an option. I wasn’t really a picky eater, and Cari was used to chowing down on things I threw together in a pinch. We ate enough disgusting things on runs that our stomachs were pretty much cast iron, although she did draw the line at sucking at the heads of river prawn. “I’ve got stuff to make ramen, and if you want to wait for the rice to cook, I can make us loco moco.”
“Make the rice. I’m going to go use your shower.” She sniffed at her shirt and stuck her tongue out at its redolent aroma. “And maybe grab something from your clean clothes basket. That was a hard run to make, and I think I’m wearing it on my skin.”
By the time she was done scraping the Pendle Run off of her body, the rice cooker was in steaming mode and I’d just finished up the mushroom brown gravy. I handed Cari a small hamburger patty to feed Newt to keep him out from underfoot and shooed her to go sit on the couch. The cat led with his stomach, meowing hoarsely as he batted at her ankles and tried to get her to stop walking. She’d found more than just a shirt in my clothes. She also snagged a pair of cotton drawstring pants.
“You should’ve gotten something thicker.” The words were barely out of my mouth when Newt hooked his claws into her calf and climbed up her leg, digging his sharp talons through the fabric and into her flesh. She let out a series of hissing screams and danced her way to the couch, holding the patty up above her head while she tried to pluck the cat off of her butt. “Just sit sideways and he’ll calm down. Feed him small pieces or he’ll try to shove that whole thing in his mouth and horf it all right back up.”
I finished up frying the eggs and then layered them on top of the two low, wide bowls with rice, hamburger patties, and the gravy I had on the counter. Then I tucked a bottle of hot sauce under one arm and two bottles of water under the other. I headed into the living area, wound around the broad storage chest I used for a table, and avoided the cat trying to snag another helping of food.
“Here. Grab something, like the water, so I can put these down.” I nodded my chin toward the tangle of rebar and bolts sitting to one side on the chest. “You might want to move that to make room.”
Cari grabbed not only the iron pieces but the cat and shifted everything out of my way. “Ryder still freaked out about these? I know Alexa is, even though she tries not to show it. Hard to imagine all of this being underneath your skin.”
“Those are just the prettier pieces. Sparky made that out of what they pulled out.” I held still as Cari grabbed the waters and hot sauce. Then I put the bowls down and handed her one of the forks I’d clenched between my fingers. “She thought I’d want something beautiful out of it. Mostly it just reminds me of where I was and probably would still be if Dempsey hadn’t won that poker hand.”
She shoveled a couple of mouthfuls of food in until her face resembled a plump chipmunk, chewing furiously. Then she swallowed and said, “You didn’t ask about the run. Or are you waiting for me to bring it up?”
“What can you tell me that’s going to change my mind about Kerrick being an asshole?” I pinched off a piece of meat and held it out for Newt to nibble on. His teeth were sharp on my fingertip, and he growled as he ate. “I noticed Alexa made herself scarce. I’m guessing her older brother wasn’t too happy she came south with Ryder. Or is she choosing her brother over her cousin?”
I’d sworn I wouldn’t get involved in the Southern Rise Court. There really hadn’t been a need to. The place was still in its building stage, and I was oblivious to any political strife. As much as Ryder tried to get me to accept a place in its ivory towers and filigree balconies, its extravagant architecture wasn’t going to be comfortable if I was surrounded by the Sidhe. I’d suffered too much at the hands of my own people, to the point where I couldn’t even hear the language without wanting to throw up. I didn’t think living among them was going to do me any good, but that didn’t stop Ryder from trying. He was the ultimate optimist, and as intelligent as I knew he was, he followed a lot of traditions and superstitions, the least of which was his insane worship of dragons.
There wasn’t any doubt in my mind that he would step aside for Kerrick if he thought the former high commander would be a better leader, but I wasn’t convinced Kerrick would be as welcoming to a small band of Unsidhe refugees.
“Why do you think that a woman Duffy wants to bring across is on the run?” Cari said after she slowed down, leaned back, and exhaled to catch her second wind. “And what’s the story on the kids?”
“Probably the same one as mine,” I said, tapping at the iron curls with my fork. “My guess is they’re Sidhe. They could have been stolen or bred from Sidhe prisoners. Elfin kids take a long
time to mature. Hell, they could have even been with that court before the Merge.”
“You were probably born before any of this happened.” Cari pushed her food around with her fork and cradled her bowl between her crossed legs. “That just seems so weird to me. Dad always told me I would have to get used to you not getting any older, but it really didn’t hit me until the run. Kerrick is over a thousand years older than Alexa, and she’s four hundred years old. She’s closer to Ryder than she is to him, so to answer your question, she’s not a member of the Kerrick fan club right now. I didn’t get a chance to talk to her, because he was always lurking, but I know she doesn’t like the Sebac. Alexa is like Ryder. She believes the elfin are going to die off if they don’t do something to increase their numbers.”
“Well, that’s something Ryder’s really working hard on. I know some think he’s crazy, and they’ve got these ideas about natural-selection conception, but is it worth your race dying off because you’re not willing to change how you think? It’s kind of like social Darwinism. If you put yourself on the path to extinction, do you have the right to stop someone else from trying to survive?”
Cari chuckled and reached for a water bottle. “Do you remember when our biggest problem was trying to decide what cartoon to watch on Saturday morning as we ate our cereal?”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her that had never been my life and that the times I’d spent with her on those Saturday mornings were because I was too inexperienced and too young to go on the long-range hunts with Jonas and Dempsey. My adolescence came fast and hard once I got enough food and wasn’t being tortured day in and day out. My body ached from the rapid growth, and her mother did the best she could do to help ease the anguish, though she was confounded by my elfin physiology. At that time, human society was still smarting from the wars, and prejudices ran strong, but they opened their home and family to me.
I could never truly repay them, and my biggest fear would be betraying their trust and consideration by killing their daughter—even if she was one of the best damned Stalkers I knew and her family didn’t expect her to do anything less than her best on a job.
“Well, since Ryder probably won’t let us kill Kerrick—don’t look at me like that, you know I wouldn’t do it—and apparently the only thing that has a say in this is those stupid towers coming up out of the ground over there, I’m going to stick with what I know how to do.” I ran through a list of my finances for the next few months, hating that I would have to borrow from the Mustang’s restoration fund if Dempsey’s medical bills came in before the end of the run. “Ryder’s promised to fund this, and since it’s directly from him to me and not through the Post, I don’t have to worry about fees. I’ll give you half of—”
“I’ll take a quarter,” Cari corrected. “I’m not equal on this one. I don’t know the route, and I’m not going to be arranging for the equipment. It’ll be pure grunt work for me.”
“You sure?” I bit my lip, not convinced.
“Yeah, because if we split it, then I have to ride shotgun as you keep the two Sidhe lords you’re dragging with us in line. That’s an argument I’d rather not referee.” Cari tapped my cat’s nose with her finger when he tried to investigate her dish. “So if this elfin woman is bringing kids, chances are they’re not Dusk Court, right?”
“Probably not. If they were, she’d have no reason to take them. Duffy’s biggest concern was getting the three kids to someplace safe, where they could grow up elfin. The other people she helped across went inland, and they were adults.” I broke the yolk of my egg and let it seep into the rice. “Can’t say I blame her. You wouldn’t want them turning out like me.”
Cari’s gaze flicked to my face, and a frown wrinkled her forehead. “There’s nothing wrong with how you turned out.”
“For me—for what I am—maybe not, but those three kids have a family somewhere in the Dawn Court. Me? Nobody was going to take me in and teach me how to be Sidhe.” I shrugged at her hissing retort. “In my head, I’m human. It’s hard for me to remember I’m elfin until I look in the mirror or somebody says something. The first time somebody called me a cat bastard, I looked around to see who he was talking about. I’ve got a lot of Dempsey’s prejudice against the elfin, not just my own, and some layer of blind distrust underneath it all.”
“But you’re trying, right? I mean, you like Alexa and Ryder.”
“I still don’t know if I like Ryder, but Alexa’s good.” I put my bowl down on the crate and grabbed my water to take a drink. “For every Ryder there are twenty Sebac and maybe a hundred Kerricks. They tire me out. I feel like I have to watch everything I say and sidestep when someone touches me every other second. It’s like a minefield of slender knives sharp enough to cut you, and you don’t even feel it until you bleed out. Maybe if you grow up in it, it’s different. For me it feels like I’m constantly under attack, and the only time I get relief is if I have Ryder in front of me. And I’ll be damned if I spend the rest of my life hiding behind his skirts.”
My link chimed and rattled from its spot on the shipping crate, its band hitting on the iron bars. I recognized the number, tapped it on, and answered, “Hey, Dalia. What’s up? Are you at home? I’ve got some more stuff to make loco moco if you’re hungry. Cari’s here. Thinking of putting on a movie and getting sick on arare popcorn.”
“No, I’m down at Medical. I’m on a double shift tonight.” The sounds of the ER finally reached me through the line. “And there’s nothing more I would rather do than watch a movie with you guys right now, but I need you to get over here, Kai. It’s Dempsey. And it’s not looking really good.”
Six
IN THE middle of Death Valley, there was a small pond filled with bright pink water. It was fed by a cold spring and nestled under lush white-leaved trees. The water was drinkable and swimmable—an elfin oasis plucked from another world and wedged into a corner of hot, searing sands, a welcome, lovely spot that offered a weary traveler some place to rest after a long day.
Those waters were also home to a fingernail-sized lavender octopus with rainbow suckers tipped with a toxin powerful enough to paralyze an adult prismatic dragon.
It wasn’t fatal, but for however long it lasted, the octopus’s victim could only watch the world go by. Automatic motor functions didn’t seem to be affected by it. The paralyzed creature could still breathe and swallow, but moving was impossible.
I’d accidentally swallowed one of those octopuses when I was just into my accelerated adolescence, and those were the most horrific three days of my life.
And considering everything I’d gone through until then, that was saying a lot.
The numbness creeping through my body after Dempsey’s doctor was done telling me what was wrong put that toxin to shame.
I wasn’t allowed to see him at first, and no one would give me the time of day until I threatened the head nurse with dismemberment. That’s when someone got Dalia in front of me and she hunted me down a doctor who looked like a heron someone had dressed up as a human and slapped a stethoscope on. He started to talk, and the nostrils on his enormous beak of a nose pinched and flared as he unstitched my world.
That’s when I experienced the rainbow-suckered octopus flashbacks and choked on the bile rising up from my twisted-around belly.
“It’s not supposed to be like this,” I said for what must have been the twentieth time since I’d come through Medical’s front doors. “He’s supposed to have longer than this. The healers—”
“Mr. Gracen, you can get every single healer and doctor on this planet to work on Mr. Dempsey, but the fact of the matter remains—the human body can only go for so long.” The heron sniffed imperiously. “And considering everything that man’s done to himself, it’s a surprise he’s lasted as long as he has. I give him six months on the short side, maybe a year and a half at the most.”
THOSE WORDS, the number of those days, echoed in my mind, and they continued to bounce around inside of my skull even
as I lowered myself into one of the rocking chairs on the wraparound porch of the Wyatts’ ranch house. Dempsey sat in the other one, his gnarly feet propped up on the lower rail, his twisted toes poking out the front of a pair of house slippers that Jonas’s husband gave him to wear.
I’d only seen him two days before, when I dropped off a load of groceries so he didn’t have to go into town, and in those few hours he seemed to have folded in on himself, and his once robust, powerful body seemed to have shrunk. He’d become a deflated origami version of the man who used to smack me when I shoveled food into my mouth with my fingers or when I bit a Stalker on the face after he slapped my ass. Dempsey never should be smaller than me, never weaker, but there he sat, slumped down in the chair and rocking it back and forth with a lazy pump of his knees.
He’d aged five hundred years in the past few hours, his already silvery hair a grizzled, yellowing mess around his deeply lined face. The patchy scruff on his jaw was coarse and sounded like sandpaper when he scratched at it. His beefy face was leaner now, his sunken cheeks mottled with age spots, and his broad nose was red with broken capillaries. Dempsey’s hands shook as he took a half-smoked cigar out of his bathrobe’s chest pocket, and I sighed, refusing to fight him over the stogie. I did clear my throat at the open bottle of beer sitting on the floor next to him, but he simply rolled his watery pale eyes at me.
“Quit looking at me like that, kid,” he mumbled as he cupped one hand over the end of the cigar. Dempsey struck a long wooden match against the chair leg, brought it up to light his cigar, and pulled on it to bring the burnt stump to a bright red. Shaking the match out, he exhaled a plume of acrid smoke and then pursed his lips and nodded at a flock of chickens picking at feed on the lawn. “Tell me something. Those birds look kinda blueish to you?”