One of the best things was that, despite the frozen climate we’d found ourselves in, we were never cold. Thanks to Evie’s internal heating, we probably could have fucked buck naked in the snow, and not one part of me would have succumbed to frostbite, not that we’d ever tested the theory—I was far too fond of all my parts to risk it. And so was Evie.
For around eight months—who knew exactly because we quickly stopped worrying about keeping track of days or weeks—Evie and I were blissfully happy in Sweden. Most of our days were spent in self-defense training or hunting, and our nights were filled with each other.
Over time, I found and bought a beat-up Toyota Land Cruiser and restored it with a little TLC. We’d even driven to Norway one day to speak to Eth to find out what he was trying to tell during our phone call the night of Zarita’s death, and we learned shadow people were potentially susceptible to all weapons.
Our little hideaway was heaven, and I never wanted it to end.
So of course it had to.
At first, it was false alarms: animals making noise at night; fireworks on New Year’s Eve; little noises and sounds that had set us both on edge until we could work out what they were.
Then, one morning, I was preparing to give Evie an archery lesson, gathering up our recurved bow from the little cupboard near the back door, when she screamed my name in terror.
I rushed to her side as quickly as I could and found out she’d seen the shadow. Despite the horror over the reappearance of that threat, I was willing to continue as normal, just with a little more caution. With Eth’s assurance that the shadow should be susceptible to all of my weaponry, I was confident I could protect her.
We moved into the forest where I would be able to teach Evie how to handle the bow and hadn’t made it very far into the lesson when Evie stilled and pointed out the presence of another.
A woman with honey-blonde curls.
The sight triggered something deep in my memory banks, but I pushed the impossibility away. Coming so hot on the heels of the reappearance of the shadow though, it set my instincts on edge.
Before I’d had a chance to recover from the knowledge that we weren’t alone and that this strange female was apparently nearby, a third entity popped up.
This one was so much worse than the rest.
When I saw the man, with his dark hair and steel-blue eyes, I instantly recognized him for what he was: a goddamn fairy.
Although fae could pass for human when they wanted to, their natural appearance was something slightly alien. In their usual form, their skin appeared almost luminescent, the set of their shoulders gave away the presence of wings—even if the wings themselves were invisible to the human eye—and then there was the look in their eye . . . The arrogance. They believed themselves to be superior to all other species in every respect. My fingers curled into fists in response to the sight.
His skin had the typical pale glow, and his lips were set into the expected condescending smirk. He was attractive—even I had to admit that—but that was a fae characteristic. There was a reason some cultures called them the Fair Folk, and it had nothing to do with their nature or generosity. While I tried to work out what he wanted, why he was there, Evie spoke to him. Her actions and the almost-too-friendly tone in her voice all indicated that she knew him well—or at least, had at one time.
He must be her ex-lover.
The thought echoed through me, ringing with truth and chilling my blood like ice in my veins. It cast my mind back to the last time I’d had that thought—during a random encounter the day she’d been attacked by my sister in Detroit—and made me see how foolish I’d been back then. That man obviously hadn’t been her lover, but I’d be willing to bet the fae in front of me knew all about that meeting. He’d probably set it up just to fuck with me. It fit with the M.O. of a typical fae.
Anger boiled through me. It was while the fae were having their fun with me that Lou had hurt Evie. Because of the fae, I hadn’t been there to stop my sister and her constant harassment, and I’d been separated from Evie.
Despite the rage coursing through my body, I bit my tongue—with great difficulty—primarily because I didn’t want to incur Evie’s wrath. I had to be the bigger man and swallow my prejudice as best as I could or I might risk losing her.
Watching the two of them interact made me feel like I was the interloper, stumbling onto a romantic moment. I gripped Evie’s hand in mine and reminded myself that at one point, she’d left the safety of his court to find me. And that even after our reunion had gone bad, she hadn’t returned to him.
He was the loser and would continue to be because she’d chosen to be with me.
Despite all of my mental reassurances, it was hard to watch Evie and this new fucker interact. There was a sense of ease that his presence offered that she usually reserved only for me. She treated almost everyone else with suspicion, and her familiarity with him made me uneasy, especially when he called her by another name and she didn’t even comment on it. He kept calling her Lynnie, and each time he did, it set my teeth on edge and made me want to shout at him to shut the hell up and inform him that her name was Evie!
When his gaze slid in my direction, I met it with as much anger and disdain as I could force into my glare. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take, but Evie made it clear that she wasn’t ending the conversation anytime soon.
Although I wasn’t interested in anything he had to say, it was impossible not to listen to their conversation or be reminded of their shared past.
I was sorely tempted to let an arrow fly from the bow I held in my hand. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Evie would have kicked my ass and hated me if I did, I would have shot at him until I’d killed him or chased him away. Instead, I bit my tongue and pretended their familiarity didn’t bother me.
“I have come on a personal errand for a dear friend. We are in need of your assistance,” the fae—Aiden according to Evie’s side of the conversation—said. “Or, perhaps more correctly, we are in need of the assistance of someone who has an intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the Rain and is willing to fight at our side for a just cause.” He twisted and nodded his chin toward me.
I couldn’t believe the audacity of the creature. He’d interrupted our peace in an attempt to use my knowledge of the Rain for his own unknown—probably nefarious—purpose.
“Why would I help you, fae?” I demanded.
“Because I know you will do what is just. You are the next generation of the Rain, no longer uncaring marble all the way through. Instead, you are like a tortoise with a hard exterior but a soft and gooey inner. Apparently, you can see beyond the usual rhetoric spouted by the Rain about the evils of other species and do not make harsh judgments.”
I wondered whether he had some links to Toni, or if he was just willing to use the way I felt about Evie against me—that was until he spoke again.
“At least, that is what I had assumed from Lynnie’s glowing endorsement of you years ago. Maybe I was mistaken. However, I do not think you would be living alone in the wilderness with a phoenix if I were.”
I was about to bite back when Evie stepped between us, placing her hand on my chest to calm me. “Can’t we at least try to get along?”
Of course she’d take his side! “Evie, he’s fae; they can’t be trusted. They’re tricksters. They enjoy human suffering and will do anything they can to cause it.”
Aiden scoffed. “You would believe that even after everything you’ve seen.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I snapped.
“It means that despite how hard you have struggled to overcome the prejudice instilled within you, you have a long way yet to go. One day, most likely one day rather soon, you will realize the errors in your judgments, and I am certain that it will result in you singing an entirely different tune.” Through his whole speech, the arrogant glint on his features grew more pronounced, and I wanted more than anything to wipe it off. Preferably with my fists. �
�Besides, even I can tell with that very base assessment you just gave that you are thinking of the Unseelies.”
Evie stepped between us once more, talking to him about the woman we’d spotted. His aunt apparently. Because having one fae in the area wasn’t bad enough.
Before long, Evie had admitted that she not only knew him, but his aunt, his family, the whole fucking court. The knowledge that she’d been so deep within the heart of the enemy hurt more than I would have expected. It was an act of betrayal, but one that I had ultimately caused. If I hadn’t left her alone after her father’s death, she would never have taken comfort in the arms of such a foul creature.
While I considered the implications of it, Evie continued to speak with her old “friend.” Then, she did the unthinkable. Against my better judgment, she agreed to help them.
By the time the fae turned away, I was feeling less than charitable toward him, and couldn’t believe that Evie had agreed that we would both help them without even talking to me about it first.
It was as if she’d completely swept Lou’s suffering at their hands from her mind and was willing to forget the impact it’d had on me, just because an old friend was asking for help.
It was as if I meant nothing to her, that my suffering was meaningless.
It was a kick in the guts, and I hated it. I was determined to make her see that, and part of me wanted to make her hurt for hurting me.
“So tell me,” I murmured after the asshole fae had disappeared, “are any more of your old boyfriends likely to appear out of nowhere today? And will they at least be human?” The words were crueler than I’d intended them to be, but I couldn’t reel in the pain. She had to know the hurt she’d caused me.
“That’s not fair,” she said. “It’s not like I asked him to come here. I didn’t even know that he could find me again. When I left their court, I honestly never expected to see any of them again. There’s no need to be a jerk.”
The hurt expression she wore instantly disarmed the piece of me that wanted to inflict pain. “I’m sorry. It just caught me by surprise, that’s all. Especially after everything else this morning.” I rested my arm over her shoulder and pulled her warm body against mine. “What do you think the other one wants?”
“Fiona,” she said, and I resisted the urge to wince.
“Her name doesn’t really matter,” I snapped, not wanting to hear it again. Each time Evie or Aiden had mentioned the name of his aunt, it made me think of my mother. That had been her name, and I hadn’t heard it in years.
Memories of her burned through me like wildfire, and I could recall nights begging for Dad to find her and bring her back too like he had with Lou. Could remember pleading over and over until he would shout at me to shut up.
As desperately as I’d longed for her return when I was a small child, I saw things clearer as an adult and understood why Dad had grown so frustrated with my pleas. She’d given up on us, and she’d left Dad during his search for Lou. She’d deserted us all in our darkest hour.
I hated her.
Despite that, I missed her.
I missed the floral scent that used to follow her around the house, which had lingered for so long after she’d left. My fists clenched as emotions clawed at my throat, restricting it and making it almost impossible to swallow.
We retreated to our little shack, and I apologized to Evie again. Trying to make up for my behavior, I even asked her to tell me about her time in the fae court. It was clear that Aiden meant a lot to her, and I wondered why. Why she was willing to ignore my feelings to help him. Considering she was one of the few people who’d ever put me first, there had to be some deeper reason for her disregarding my discomfort in this particular situation.
All I really knew was that she credited him with saving her life when she was in a dark place. Evie had always seemed so resilient to me; I couldn’t imagine her being in a situation where she needed someone to help her through the darkness.
“I didn’t care about anything anymore. I was numb, and honestly, I gave up. My feet carried me through the countryside until I found myself in New York. I don’t think even you would have recognized me by then. Aiden found me in an alley when I was ready to just lie down and die. He convinced me to get back on my feet.”
I held her in my arms while she continued her story in a quiet whisper. If I’d heard her tale without my knowledge of what the fae had done to my sister, I might have felt more charitable toward them. Only, I did have that knowledge so I couldn’t be okay with Evie’s friends.
With that in mind, but sensing that Evie felt somewhat obliged to help them, it was clear that we needed to compromise—and that I needed to be as far away as I could be before the meeting with the fae occurred.
Despite my need to not be where the fae were, I couldn’t leave Evie unguarded and alone either. For all I knew, the fae and the shadow were working together, and I couldn’t risk being miles away if they tried some treachery and Evie was caught in the trap. She trusted them implicitly, regardless of my warnings, but I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.
My dual desires waged war with one another, and while neither won, I eventually ended up lingering near the back of the shack with an ax in my hand at the appointed time.
I did what I could to distract myself, chopping some of the wood I’d already gathered, but barely got through a half dozen logs before my need to ensure Evie was safe grew so intense that I had to check on her. An ache in my chest called me to her, warning me to find her. Find her now. The sun was setting, and I wanted to get inside rather than risk being outside alone in the dark with the shadow potentially lurking nearby.
When I returned, I hoped Evie had already finished and the fae visitor gone. Carrying the pile of wood through the back door, I wanted nothing more than to find out what the fae visiting with Evie had wanted, sweep it away as impossible, and then get back to what Evie and I had been doing for the last eight months. That life was perfect; we didn’t need fae, shadow people, or the Rain coming in to destroy it all.
What I found instead was a ghost from the past. At the sight, I stopped breathing. A tidal wave of emotion washed over me, laying to waste my ability to think.
My arms fell slack. The wood I’d held securely in my arms seconds earlier slipped from my grasp and tumbled to the floor in a cacophony of sound that I barely heard over the pounding of my heart as I stared at the intruder.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE WOMAN STANDING just feet away from me was one who’d lingered in my dreams for so long when I was a child. My name slipped from her lips with a familiarity I couldn’t deny. Her face was as clear as the name I knew to attach to it.
Fiona.
The name echoed in my memory and was tied to another.
Mom.
Tremors ran through my body as I stared with disbelief as that traitorous name rushed from me. Despite the passage of years since I’d last seen her face, and everything that had happened to me since, I was suddenly a toddler again, staring into the luminescent blue eyes of my mother.
But I refused to believe my eyes or ears. It couldn’t be her—especially when it was clear to me that this was a creature I hated.
A trickster.
A fae.
I was unable to react to anything around me, and then it all slammed into me, harder than a bullet. Everything morphed into a whirlwind of visions—past and present colliding with such a force it threatened to send me to my knees.
No! I needed to be strong. To protect Evie. To save myself.
The blinding truth struck then that this was Evie’s friend’s aunt. The one who had been coming to visit. The one who resided at that asshole’s court where Evie had lived.
Evie knew this woman . . . this thing.
She knew my mother, or at least the fae masquerading as her.
When I lifted my gaze, Evie was in front of me asking if I was okay. Concern was etched on her features, but I couldn’t help but question her motives.
Was thi
s all a lie? Was this all orchestrated? Did she lead them here with some ruse in mind?
My brows tipped into a frown and my mouth twisted with disgust. All the reassurances I’d given myself since finding Evie again left—could I trust her? Could I trust how I felt?
“You . . . you lived with them.” I wanted to scream the words like I needed to, but it came out breathy and childlike. Evie staggered away from me, a betrayed expression on her face, but I didn’t care. I wanted someone to hurt, needed to lash out at everyone who might be involved in this cruel trickery. “You said you knew them. Did you know this?”
“I swear I didn’t. She was just Aiden’s aunt. I never even thought . . .”
I closed my eyes and gripped my head to block out the image of the two women standing before me. My past and my future, colliding with an impact that threatened to shatter my sanity. It was a trick; it had to be.
Everything that I’d been through since meeting the phoenix raced through my memory as my heart bled out through the gaping chasm of betrayal. There were words being spoken. Meaningless words that did nothing to roll back the years or erase the pain. The woman before me, my mother . . .
No! My mother isn’t fae.
She couldn’t be. It was impossible.
I’m not fae.
Toni’s questions, the never-ending string of them when we’d hunted together in Oxford, played in my mind. “I thought you’d understand.”
It can’t be true.
It just can’t.
More meaningless drivel rushed from the fae wearing my mother’s face. Words and nonsense about fae treachery and falling in love with a human. An endless stream of bullshit that would never take root in my mind no matter her insistence.
Court the Fire (Son of Rain #3) Page 14