The Poisoned Veil (Accessory to Magic Book 4)

by Kathrin Hutson

  Jessica snorted. “That’s the last word I expected from you.”

  “Tell me, did he in any way seem hesitant or even a little worried about it?”

  “Not until you shoved your hand—”

  “Through his chest. Yes, I heard you the first time.” After another deep breath, he rolled his shoulders back and straightened. “Before you pepper me with questions again, no, I do not generally use magic like that on my enemies. Yes, Mitra knew it was coming. And as to why I went to such lengths, I sincerely hope you’ll believe me without any further questioning when I tell you that just as I made a deal with the Naruli to watch over the Madraqór for me, I made a similar deal with Mitra.”

  “And then...what? You didn’t see it, so you skewered him?”

  Leandras fixed her with a disapproving stare.

  No.

  “You...” Jessica swallowed and wrinkled her nose. “You put an artifact inside another fae to keep it safe?”

  “We reached a mutual agreement, yes.” He stood with a heavy sigh and dusted off his hands. “I merely failed to hold up my end of the arrangement.”

  “Which was what? Anesthesia?”

  “You, actually.”

  Chapter 31

  Jessica leapt to her feet and backed away from the fae, her gut churning all over again, this time without the added benefit of being teleported miles away. In this case, she would have been happy to teleport if it meant putting more distance between her and the fae staring dejectedly at the ground.

  “You made a deal to trade your...whatever for me.”

  Leandras’ head twitched, as if she’d slapped him and he just hadn’t fully felt the sting yet. “For the Guardian, actually.”

  “That is me!”

  “Jessica, these agreements I made are thousands of years old. There’s no possible way I could have know it would be you.”

  “That doesn’t matter. Why the hell would you make a deal like that?”

  The fae man rubbed his forearm, his head tilted in obvious discomfort as his gaze flickered across everything but her.

  “Look at me!”

  “I’ve made a number of deals I’m not particularly proud of,” he muttered. “Most of them I have upheld because it suited my purposes. And those purposes have changed.”

  “That is nothing close to an answer.” Jessica’s fists clenched all on their own at her sides. “Politics is one thing. Promising to deliver the Guardian—any Guardian—to a psychopath who would choose to let you pull a gem or seed or whatever the hell that was out of his chest on purpose is something completely different.”

  “It would only have been for a night.”

  “Not better!”

  “No.” Finally, his gaze rose from the ground and slowly trailed up her body before he looked her in the eye. “If it had been anyone else...”

  “Jesus Christ, I can’t believe I’m stuck here in this world with a fucking magical-trafficking fae.”

  “That’s not—”

  “These are the kinds of things you should have told me!” Against all her better judgement—or maybe just in alignment with her growing fury—Jessica stormed toward him. Black smoke burst around her hands, and she didn’t even care if she let off an accidental shot that took his eye out or corroded his throat instead of just smacking him on the cheek. “You knew you had to get these artifacts. You knew where you’d left them, including inside somebody. So tell me how the fuck I’m supposed to trust you when you knew that fae was expecting a free night with the Guardian in exchange.”

  “I’d fully intended to find another way.”

  “You said there was no other way—”

  “There wasn’t until you!” Leandras sprang toward her and seized both her wrists. She snarled and tried to jerk away, but he pulled her closer until the sparking black smoke flaring around her fists lit up the space between their faces. “You, Jessica.”

  She had no idea if she could keep herself from destroying him right now, but if she did, it sure as shit wouldn’t come with a resurrection.

  The dark energy flaring around her hands flickered down to lick at his fingers tightly clamped around her wrists. “Let go of me.”

  Goddamnit, why did her voice have to shake like that?

  “You’ve changed everything,” Leandras whispered, still trying to lure her in with that steady gaze when she led her guard down and fae-handling her when he pissed her off.

  This wasn’t a misunderstanding, and they both knew it. Jessica could see it in his eyes.

  “And you haven’t changed at all,” she muttered.

  His grip on her wrists tightened, and she didn’t care one bit whether his growl through clenched teeth was in frustration or pain beneath the flickering brush of her warning magic that was probably starting to leave a few decent burn marks in his flesh by now.

  “You can’t talk yourself out of this one,” she added. Her whole body felt like it was trembling, but if she paid attention to that instead of what she had to say to this asshole holding her in place, she’d end him right here. “I believed you only because I thought I had no other choice. You chose to keep the rest of it to yourself, hoping I’d be too distracted by this hellhole of a world to pay attention. I’m not an idiot, Leandras. The only reason I’ve survived this long is because I do pay attention. At least when it counts.”

  Leandras swallowed thickly, his jaw working endlessly as he clearly fought to keep himself under control. “I need you to listen to me, Jessica.”

  “You don’t need anything from me.” A bitter smile broke through her fury. “I’m done.”

  She tried to pull away from him again, but the moron wouldn’t let go.

  He jerked her back toward him. “I obviously haven’t made this clear. I’m not talking about the Gateway or—”

  “One more word and I’ll fucking rip you apart!”

  With a seething hiss, Leandras released her wrists with a jerk and left her no time to pull away.

  She couldn’t have anyway. The shock of his hands on her face now and his lips pressing painfully against hers made every muscle in her body seize.

  It lasted all of two seconds before she shoved him away. “Are you fucking serious?”

  Leandras lifted both hands in surrender and stared at the hollow of her throat, looking as baffled by his actions as she was. “Not that I would have found the right words anyway, but I firmly believe your threat was valid.”

  A sharp, startled laugh burst out of her instead of the furious scream she’d expected to unleash. “And you thought kissing me would...what? Make me less likely to murder you?”

  The fae tilted his head and offered a pathetically sheepish shrug. “I’d rather avoid the murdering aspect, but I can’t let you go without telling you how I feel.”

  “You still haven’t!”

  “I assumed the opportunity to do so had run it’s course.”

  “Jesus Christ.” Another laugh escaped her, and she spun around in a tight circle, meaning to run a hand through her hair but only clenching a fistful of it at the top of her head instead. “What is wrong with you?”

  “Hmm. The list is quite long.”

  “Yeah, no shit.”

  Leandras finally risked another wary glance up at her, his hands still lifted in surrender. “But I want you to know that may be changing.”

  Jessica closed her eyes and took in a long, slow breath.

  She shouldn’t even still be here—standing in front of this fae man who was insane enough to pull that stunt after everything else he’d just tried to pull with Mitra. With Jessica. With this whole fucked-up trip into a fucked-up world that hadn’t given her any indication it actually wanted to be saved.

  She should never have left the bank.

  She should never have let herself feel anything more for Leandras than a fully justified irritation in his presence.

  Because that was the only thing keeping her here.

  That and the fact she had absolutely no idea where they wer
e or where anything else was in this world, and the thought of being eaten, captured, tortured, or just slowly starved to death was only slightly less appealing.

  “Jessica.”

  Of course Leandras had taken her moment of silence as an opportunity to sneak toward her again. When he cupped her cheek this time instead of trying to ensnare her between both hands, she turned her face away. “Just... I know personal space means nothing to you, but this has to stop.”

  “Look at me. Please.”

  Only when he removed his hand did she finally open her eyes. The fae’s shimmered with silver light, and it wasn’t impossible that part of it came from tears. If fae like Leandras even knew what tears really were.

  “Before you threaten my life again, do I have your permission to speak my piece?”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yes.”

  She let out a hesitant chuckle. “Sure. I can’t promise I won’t kill you afterward.”

  “I don’t doubt that.” The corner of his mouth twitched, but the smile never quite appeared. “There are so many things I would have done differently if I’d known our paths would cross. You have no idea how much depends on—”

  “This goddamn quest of yours?”

  “May I finish?”

  Jessica bit her lip and raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t exactly permission, but she was surprisingly relieved he seemed it to take it that way.

  “How much depends on what I truly thought I understood about this world. About yours. How they’re connected. How they’re different. And you... You’ve shattered every certainty I’ve been clinging to for longer than you can imagine.”

  “A few thousand years, give or take.”

  He apparently chose to ignore the comment, closing his eyes briefly to collect himself. Then he gently grabbed her hands, and no, she didn’t pull away.

  Because despite everything, this was the first time he’d even mentioned being wrong—not just when it came to his self-important assumptions about Jessica and her private life but about his own now too.

  “Not once in all that time have I found a reason to turn away from my purpose. So many centuries set in stone, Jessica. So many seemingly irredeemable mistakes. And if Tabitha told you to trust me, she must have known how much I would...” He hung his head and cleared his throat. “It is too much to ask, I know. But I can’t afford not to ask it of you all the same.”

  Jessica couldn’t help but frown. He was really tearing himself apart over this one, and he couldn’t even tell her why. Maybe it didn’t matter. But if he said one more thing about her duty as the Guardian or the last artifact on his list—if there really was only one more—she wouldn’t help him with any of it. Even if he begged, which he was practically doing right now, but still.

  “So go ahead and ask.” It came out sounding rough and heartless; even knowing that was how she dealt with everything too heavy to carry on her own or too hard to consider talking about, she still hated herself for it.

  It clearly didn’t phase Leandras in the least. He met her gaze again and really did look like he was about to fall apart. “Forgiveness, first. For deceiving you as many times as I have.”

  Jessica blinked quickly. “Okay...”

  It sounded so stupid, but what else was she supposed to say?

  “And for a second chance.” His studied her face, his eyebrows flickering together as he gazed at her with something between remorse and hope. “Not for anyone else’s sake. Not to save two worlds. No to...jump from one plan to the next. A second chance merely to believe in a scryer’s letter to her successor.”

  Jessica swallowed. “What, that Tabitha wanted me to trust you?”

  “That I can be trusted.” He swallowed with obvious difficulty, looking as broken as Jessica had felt since the night she’d started running from the end of one life and into this new one. “I need to be completely honest with you, Jessica, and if you can’t find it in yourself to fully forgive me after the fact, I won’t—”

  “Stop.”

  Leandras leaned away from her and widened his eyes, looking like he’d just been ripped from a dream. “Did I cross a line?”

  She gave him a crooked smile. “Yeah, you pretty much always do. But I actually understand this one. You don’t have to say anything else.”

  “I’m not entirely certain that’s true.”

  “No, really.” Jessica nodded and stepped toward him. “Stop talking.”

  The fae opened his mouth, closed it again, and finally let himself smile back as he dipped his head toward her. “I realize you’re offering something of a free pass here. But before anything else happens, I want to make it clear I intend to return to this conversation. Preferably in the near future.”

  Jessica stared at him, floating somewhere between laughing at his inability to get the hint and calling the whole thing off because of it. “Fine.”

  “Fine.” He slid one arm around her waist and pulled her gently closer. But instead of kissing her again—like any sane witch in Jessica’s shoes would clearly expect at this point—he brought his lips to her ear again and muttered, “I do apologize for the interruption.”

  Jessica tried to look at him, but he held her too closely. “What interruption?”

  His only reply was a quick, light nibble on her earlobe before he released her completely, stepped away, and turned around with his arms spread.

  Goddamnit, that was not a useful answer.

  “Leandras.” She spun around to glare at him. “What are you—”

  “There he is.” A mage in a long brown robe—an actual, honest-to-god robe, for crying out loud—walked toward them with his arms spread as wide as the fae’s.

  Jessica couldn’t decide whether to focus on him or the fact she’d completely missed where they’d landed after their close call with the sadistic white-haired fae and his orc-bartender flunky.

  The mage had to have come from the forest behind him—a forest which, based on everything else she’d seen of this world, shouldn’t have been sustainable. And Jessica herself was standing on grass. Of course, she couldn’t tell what color it was beneath the churning green light of the sky blotted out by the noxious storm clouds, but it wasn’t dead earth.

  “Wait a minute.” She spun around to fully look at her surroundings this time and found an entire field in front of her, a few bushes interspersed here and there, and no sign whatsoever of gaping chasms or tunnels or civilization of any kind. “Exactly how far did you just take us?”

  “As far away as I could get,” Leandras muttered before letting out a full-bellied laugh. “Railen!”

  “We thought you’d take longer.”

  Leandras took off to greet the mage, chuckling. “Have we inconvenienced you?”

  “More than you can imagine.” Laughing, Railen clapped his arms around the fae man for a firm embrace, then stepped back and pointed at Jessica. “Is this her?”

  “Jessica Northwood.” Leandras turned toward her with one of those perfect grins that would have made her forget her own name if the forest and the mage and finally—finally—a warm welcome hadn’t done most of the job already.

  “Jessica.” Railen thumped the back of his hand against the fae’s chest and hurried toward her. “We’ve been waiting for you. Glad to see you’ve made it in one piece.”

  “You are?”

  “Ha!” The mage clapped his hands together, then placed a palm against his chest and bowed at the waist. “A pleasure, Guardian.”

  Too shellshocked to do or say anything in reply, she looked up at Leandras. His chuckle convinced her more than anything else that she looked like a complete idiot standing there and gaping in disbelief.

  When Railen straightened, he seemed to notice the same. “You haven’t said a word of this to her, have you?”

  “Ah.” Leandras scratched his head. “I’ve had some difficulty finding the time.”

  “That’s always your excuse.” With a genuinely warm smile, the mage dipped his head at Jessica. “Allow
me to rectify the fae’s oversight, Jessica. My name is Railen Conteriem. You’ll hear the others occasionally throwing around a few titles with all the pomp and circumstance I honestly can’t stand, but I do speak for everyone when I say the Order of Laenmúr welcomes you. For however long the Guardian intends to stay.”

  Jessica blinked. “I...”

  None of this made sense.

  Or maybe it did, and she’d just missed a giant piece of the Xaharí puzzle.

  Railen chuckled again and twirled his index finger beside his temple. “You can form an adequate response while we walk. Or perhaps after you’ve eaten something and had a chance to let it all sink in. Just do be sure that one doesn’t wander off, hmm? He still hasn’t paid up on his losing bets since his last visit.”

  The mage nodded toward Leandras, then burst out laughing and headed for the trees again.

  Jessica frowned after him and slowly approached the fae man waiting for her where Railen had left him. “He said Order of Laenmúr, right?”

  “I believe so.” Leandras clasped his hands behind his back and walked toward the forest like he didn’t have a care in the world.

  “Like the faction in Colorado.”

  “And many other locations on Earth, yes.”

  “I thought you said they all went through the Gateway before it...sealed up or whatever.”

  The fae dipped his head and failed to hide a knowing smirk. “All but the original order. Not that I imagine you’ve been particularly fond of the other locations we’ve visited thus far, but I can promise you the Laenmúr in this world know precisely how to show a few weary travelers a good time.”

  Jessica barked out a laugh. “Will they try to kill us afterward?”

  “That would entirely defeat the purpose of helping us end this nightmare.”

  They stepped between the first huge, thick trees shimmering with green life in their full, lush branches and towering over a forest floor that rustled beneath the magicals’ footsteps. “And you didn’t make a deal with them.”

  “No, Jessica. As much as I would enjoy taking that on, the order will only enter into an agreement with the Guardian.” He scanned the trees with a sly smile, then leaned toward her to mutter, “But not until you and I have had our chance to enjoy ourselves. For once.”