Once more, my mind turned to Toni and the questions she’d had as she’d viewed me through the hagstone while we were hunting the black annis. I could see now that she was trying to draw information out of me—information I didn’t have at the time but that she must have suspected.
Aiden and Evie had discussed my aura before I’d even tasted a drop of the fae enchantments, surely Toni had been able to see the same thing: the muted blue glow over my body. Even in the short time I’d experienced the world with the enchantments running through my veins, I’d discovered that normal humans didn’t have auras—at least none that I’d seen yet had one.
It made sense it was something that only others had.
Others like me.
Evie was still looking at me as if she expected an answer.
Could Abe have known?
“I guess he could have. Honestly, I don’t know what to think anymore. I don’t even know who to trust.”
Evie stepped closer and placed her hand on my arm. “You can trust me.”
I couldn’t resist rolling my eyes over the statement. Of course I trusted her. I had very little choice in the matter, and it was the reason I’d tasted the fae enchantments in the first place. It was the reason I’d returned home to the States and wasn’t still secreted away in Sweden with her. “I just want to know who tortured Lou. I want them to pay for what they did to her.”
I wanted to make whoever it was pay tenfold for the pain they’d caused my whole family. If it had been my father who’d hurt Lou, I wouldn’t go easy on him just because of the familial link. My retraining will look like summer vacation compared to what I’ll do to him.
“And find Mackenzie,” Evie added.
“Of course,” I replied. Rescuing a stranger, regardless of her apparent relationship to me, was secondary to my objective, but I would do what I could to do both.
“We’re doing the right thing,” Evie said with a reassuring hand cupped against my cheek.
“I hope so,” I muttered. “But I can’t help feeling that Eth and I are dragging people to their deaths.”
“You’re not dragging anyone. Everyone is volunteering. Even if you refused to take everyone with you, I think they’d just try to find their own way in, regardless of the heightened risk. I know I would.”
Her words reminded me that, regardless of what I did to minimize the risk for her, she would be in severe danger from the time she was within a block of Bayview.
“If you want to back out at any time, just say the word,” I told her. “No one will think any less of you for not going tomorrow.”
“I know, but I want to do this. I want to protect Mackenzie from her pain. I need to. I can’t help it; it’s just part of who I am.”
It was the part of her personality created by the sunbird within her. How could I argue against the very part of her that made me fall head over heels in love with her? I pulled her into my arms, and we spent the time until Eth returned going between quiet introspection and packing and planning for the following day.
When Eth returned, he threw us each a new cell phone and in turn, we filled him in on the research we’d conducted during the day. He didn’t seem convinced by the most promising lead we had—a sheet of glass in place over the infrared cameras—but honestly, I wasn’t that sold on it either.
“Okay, so what exactly is the plan?” Ethan asked after a few seconds mulling over the idea of a simple sheet of glass. We both had a rough idea of what needed to happen, but I could see he wanted to go over specifics.
“You and I need to go in first,” I said. It was part of my goal to keep Evie out of danger. Aside from the Assessors, Abe and Ben were the biggest danger to her. If we could keep them busy and catch them off guard, we might just be lucky and have them miss the obvious signs of her otherness. “If we arrive wanting to see Abe, I’m sure they’ll let us in. We can pretend that I’m back because I’ve realized the error of my ways.”
“What about Oxford?” Eth asked.
Of course he’d bring that up. I hadn’t seen anyone at Bayview or any of the American divisions of the Rain since I’d brazenly stolen artifacts from Charles’ private collection. I wasn’t sure how much Eth had shared with them about why Charles was no longer desperate to locate me—after all, Charles had dropped the issue because of secrets he’d wanted to keep hidden. “I’ll just say it was a misunderstanding.”
Evie met my eye and mouthed the word “Oxford” at me, but I shook my head to tell her it wasn’t important. She knew the basics regarding what I’d done to acquire the items with information about her, she just wasn’t aware where—or more specifically from whom—I’d procured the stolen artifacts.
“He’s definitely more likely to buy that bull than Dad would be. Abe always had a soft spot for you and Lou.”
Evie’s earlier question came flooding back into my mind. “Do you think that soft spot is guilt?”
Eth flinched. The movement was so small that, if I didn’t know him as well as I did, I would have missed it. “I don’t think you can think about things like that until we know some more facts. For now, keep your head in the game because we need to worry about getting Mack out of there first.”
“Mack?” Evie asked with a growing smile.
“Well, if she’s my sis, I’ll have to give her some nickname. It’s only fair.”
I couldn’t understand his readiness to adopt her as family. I had one sister—and even that relationship was tenuous. “Let’s just leave the ‘S’ word out of this for now too, huh?”
Eth shrugged. “Whatever, bro, but that’s what she is, whether you like the word or not. You can deny it all you want, but it won’t change one simple fact. She is Mom’s daughter, which makes her our sister.”
Even though I knew it was true logically, I couldn’t acknowledge it.
I was glad when Evie interjected and brought the focus back to planning. “Okay, so after you get in to see Abe, how are you going to clear the way? If we’re going with the glass, how will I know that it’s in place?”
“I don’t know where the sensors are or what they look like,” Eth said. “We’ll have to think of something when we get there, and that’s assuming that we even can. If you give us half an hour, we’ll do everything we can to put them out of commission.”
If. Assuming. Everything we can. The words were all wrong and made my concern spike. I couldn’t let Evie risk her life for ifs, buts, and maybes.
“That’s not good enough,” I said. “You’re risking exposing Evie if anything goes wrong.”
“There are other ways to avoid detection.” Evie placed her hand on my arm.
Instead of calming me, like I’m sure she’d meant it to, it reminded me of the exact reason it was dangerous for her to be anywhere near Bayview.
“We saw some other stuff about dark clothing being less reflective of the heat,” she explained to Eth. “The outfit we’ve left out should be dark enough, and if I cover up at the last minute with cold gloves and a cool scarf, it should be sufficient to get me through the lobby even if you can’t get the glass in place in time.” Evie glanced between Eth and me before continuing, “Okay, so if I make it through the lobby, what then?”
“Once you’re booked in, Clay and I will buzz your room,” Eth said. “There are intercoms throughout the whole place, so even if we can’t get to you, we can call you. We’ll save the cell phones for absolute emergencies only. Then we can arrange to meet you in the elevator and get onto the right floors to start cleaning the path and trying to find Mack.”
“There are a lot of ifs, buts, and maybes in this plan,” Evie said, and I wanted to argue against her coming with us again.
What if Dad turns up while she’s there? Will he recognize her? If that happened, he’d be unlikely to let me leave anyway, so our plan would be screwed either way.
“I know,” Eth murmured, “but we work best without a plan, don’t we, little bro?”
I couldn’t answer him. Instead, I was willing
Evie to see the danger. It would likely be a suicide mission for her, and I couldn’t survive her death. I just wouldn’t.
Not to mention there was every chance that I’d be so concerned about her safety that I would miss some vital clue about Lou’s suffering or Mackenzie’s location. I knew better than to keep arguing about it with her though. She was as stubborn as . . . well, as stubborn as I was. Now that she’d set her mind to coming, trying to demand that she stay behind was as impossible as pushing water uphill with a sieve.
“The most important thing is wiping out the anti-fae protections so that we can have that extra back-up,” Evie said, making it clear once more that she was going.
“I agree,” Eth replied. He was obviously all on board for her to risk her life. “Their assistance is crucial to this whole thing going our way. We’re going to be massively outnumbered, even with them, but they’ll definitely give us a much-needed boost.”
After another half hour of planning, we ordered room service and tried to lighten the mood and forget about what was coming up the next morning.
“This enchantment thing is pretty wicked,” Eth said around a mouthful of hamburger. “It’ll almost be a shame to lose it before the big game.”
Evie laughed. “It’s not great when you have nothing but double vision for months. When I lived at the court, I’d get such a headache every time I had to go outside.”
“No fucking way!” Eth exclaimed. “You lived with them? When?”
Evie chewed on her lip, and I could see she regretted her words. Her friendship with Eth was still in its infancy, and there was a lot of personal history involved in her time with the fae.
“She lived with them before Salem,” I answered for her. I wasn’t sure whether the words were intended to save her the trouble of an explanation or because the new reminder was too much in the face of everything else. “Aiden saved her life.”
She met my eye, and I could see the doubt printed there. She wasn’t sure what to make of my explanation. Truthfully, I wasn’t either.
“So you knew Mom—” Eth cut off when I frowned at him.
“Yeah.” Evie nodded, looking ashamed. “Of course, I had no idea who she was then—I mean, who she was to you and Clay.”
“Tell me more about her?” Eth asked, and I realized that as much as I’d suffered from her absence, he’d had to live through her departure and then deal with two younger siblings constantly craving his recollections and memories in the years that followed. We’d commandeered his memories for our own purpose, and left him none of his own.
A soft pink blush rose up Evie’s olive cheek. “I didn’t really see her much.”
Eth’s brows furrowed in confusion at her response.
“I was busy doing other things,” she responded, ducking her head and hiding behind her hair.
I pushed myself off the bed, unable to listen to another minute. Busy doing other things?
Like Aiden.
Images of the two of them together filled me, and I wanted to be sick. What she’d shared with him wasn’t anything like the desperate fucks I’d shared with other women while we’d been apart. My affairs had been meaningless and had only served to remind me how much I needed Evie.
Whereas she’d found love.
If I confronted her about it, she’d deny it, but it was obvious that they cared deeply for one another. Even if she loved him less than she loved me, for a time she had considered him a genuine replacement. I couldn’t deny the jealousy that festered within me at the knowledge of how much he’d meant to her.
How much he still meant to her.
“What’s going on?” Eth asked, clearly sensing the tension in the room.
“Evie?” I said, turning to her with a raised eyebrow. It was her story to tell, and I wondered whether she would admit it to Eth. “Why don’t you tell Eth all about your special relationship with the fae?”
She set her jaw in a way that demonstrated her irritation, and the aura around her body tightened into the blowtorch-style flames again. “Aiden and I fucked. Is that what you want to hear?” She ignored Eth and glared at me, holding me captive in her gaze. “In the ten months I lived there, we screwed over and over again. We had sex in my room and in his. We even fucked outside. Is this helping?”
Unable to face her anymore, even though I was the one who’d dragged up the past, I broke away from her gaze first. Without another word, I turned away and headed toward the bathroom.
She leapt from the bed and followed me, reaching for my shoulder and twisting me around. “And I could do nothing but think of you each time.”
I met her gaze again, but I couldn’t find my voice.
Her hands came to rest on my shoulders, pinning me in place. “You don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what?” I could hardly find my voice.
“There’s one part of the story that I’ve never told you.”
“And what’s that?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know more.
“I never told you why I left.”
Part of me braced myself for the worst. Had he broken her heart and that was the only reason she’d sought me again? Would she have stayed there forever if he’d wanted her to?
“Why?” My voice was barely a whisper.
“I found him with another girl.”
Her words confirmed my fear.
“I knew it could happen. From the very first time we were together, he told me about fae views on monogamy, but it was still a shock when I found him with her.”
“He hurt you?” It was all of my worst nightmares rolled into one. She’d loved him and he’d hurt her. If he hadn’t, we might never have reunited in Salem. My happiness was dependent on someone else screwing her over. Would she still be with him if things were different? Would she be happy?
She gave a hard, cheerless laugh. “Hardly. That’s why I left. I saw him wrapped around another fae, and I felt nothing. Less than nothing. The pain only started when I thought that maybe you could be in the arms of someone else too. That’s why I left.”
Her confession made my heart ache for her and wiped away every jealous thought that had been infesting my mind.
“I’m so sorry, Evie,” I murmured before pressing my lips against hers.
We shared a soft kiss where we breathed in each other’s air until there was a clearing of a throat nearby. I looked up to see Eth staring at us with a raised eyebrow. I pulled away from Evie just enough that I could meet her gaze. “I’m sorry I was jealous.”
Her lip quirked as she fought a smile. “I think I’d be more annoyed if you weren’t.”
I chuckled.
When Evie moved to sit back on our bed, Eth’s amazed gaze followed her movement. I understood almost immediately what had him so bewildered. She’d been furious with me—it was clear in everything she’d done, her words and her actions, and yet I wasn’t sporting scorch marks. He’d have been able to see the tightened, angry aura she’d had and felt the heat radiating through the hotel room, and yet I was unharmed.
He’d seen firsthand exactly what I’d been trying to tell him for years—she’d never hurt me. No matter how much my idiocy might irritate her, she would never allow her fire to harm me.
He watched until she grabbed a chip off the room service tray and popped it into her mouth. Then he smiled.
“So, you and Aiden, huh?” he asked, before laughing as she choked down the food.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I WOKE THE next morning expecting my vision to be normal again, only it wasn’t. Evie had assured both Eth and me that the enchantments we’d consumed would be burned off within twenty-four hours, but it had been longer than that and the fae world still lingered when I opened my eyes. The fire around Evie’s sleeping form and the blue aura coming from me were both as strong as ever.
Pushing aside the worry, I decided to get ready for everything just like we’d planned. It was likely the enchantments would fade sometime soon. As I showered and dressed, a new worry entered my
head. I’d been so focused on the danger Evie would be in, I hadn’t given much thought to how dangerous the Bayview trip might be for me. Friends would now be enemies if there was even a suggestion that Evie was alive and that I’d harbored her and kept her safe.
The last time I’d been there, I’d been in such a bad place. It was shortly after I’d learned of Lou’s “death” and Evie had just left me. At the time, I was barely eating and survived largely on a liquid diet that left me numb.
Even I wouldn’t have been able to reconcile who I’d been then with who I was now. Months and months of clean eating, training, and building our little love nest with our bare hands had carved both Evie’s and my bodies into something close to perfection, and even I was able to see that my attitude toward life was worlds away from what it had been.
In the mirror of the bathroom, I assessed myself carefully, casting a critical eye over the changes that everyone I’d once known would bear witness to shortly. The extra muscles I’d obtained made me look even more like Eth, although my naturally lean form would never develop the body-builder-esque physique that he seemed to acquire with little effort.
My hair was longer than I’d usually worn it when I’d ever been at Bayview. Then, I’d often had it styled into a standard short back and sides; now it was a bit more shaggy-dog. The most unmistakable difference though was the bright-blue ring that looped the black coffee color in both of my irises. Evie had mentioned it, but I hadn’t had a chance to really see it for myself yet.
I tried to meet my own gaze in the mirror, but it was difficult to concentrate on exactly how noticeable the ring was. I could only hope no one would look me in the eye long enough to see it, or if they did that they’d think my eyes had always been like that rather than an impossibly dark brown.
Eth banged on the door. “What’re you doing in there?” His voice boomed through the closed door. “You’re taking longer than most women I know.”
Court the Fire (Son of Rain #3) Page 21