The Cursed (League of the Black Swan)

by Alyssa Day

  What if she made things worse? The thought of hurting the little girl was causing the familiar stabbing pains in Rio’s lungs. She’d be in a full-blown panic attack soon. Just as Rio was contemplating how far she’d get if she started running, Elisabeth opened her eyes and smiled.

  “My mommy is trying to get here, but Auntie Merelith thinks she won’t make it in time to see me before I go to heaven.”

  The words sliced through Rio like a blade, and she had to fight to keep the tears from welling up in her eyes. She’d do anything to keep Elisabeth from seeing how desperately sad she was, or even how hopeless she felt.

  Merelith’s gasp, though, told Rio that the Fae had heard her niece.

  “I never said anything of the sort, and you know it. You’re not going anywhere. I won’t allow it,” Merelith said haughtily, playing the role of the autocratic Fae princess to amuse her niece.

  It worked. Elisabeth giggled, but then a gentle sadness returned to the little girl’s face. “I heard it in your mind, Auntie Merelith. It’s okay. I know you don’t want me to be sad, and I know that Mommy is having trouble getting back here because there might be a war.”

  She’d heard it in her aunt’s mind? Was Elisabeth like Rio?

  Elisabeth reached out with one small hand and touched Rio on the arm, scattering her thoughts of whether the child was a mind reader.

  “I did want to see Kit again, though. Do you think you could bring her soon? I don’t think I have much time,” Elisabeth said softly.

  The little girl’s face changed then, and her gaze turned inward, as if she were seeing something too far away for the rest of them to be able to understand. After several long seconds in which her breath came far too slowly, Elisabeth looked up, searching for Luke.

  “Mr. Oliver, I know you’re a wizard, and everybody says you’re also a very smart man who’s going to be the sheriff. If I ask you a question, will you promise to tell me the truth?”

  A wave of black despair crashed over Rio, and it took her a moment to realize that the emotion was coming from Luke. His pain poured out of him and into her like wine into a jug—first filling and then overflowing—and she could tell that he didn’t even know he was doing it. She dug the fingers of the hand that Elisabeth couldn’t see into the bed to try to ride out the wave of pain.

  “I’ll always tell you the truth, little one,” Luke said, grinning as if he weren’t being crushed by the landslide of his pain and sense of failure. “What’s up? You’re wondering who’s on my PJs? I gotta admit, it’s SpongeBob SquarePants. Yellow is my color.”

  Elisabeth giggled a little, but every bit of color had drained from her face, and every adult in that room knew that the end was very near.

  “No, silly,” Elisabeth said. “I was just wondering, do you think that maybe, if I die, I can talk to the angels and convince them to stop the Fae war? I don’t want my mommy and daddy or Auntie Merelith to get hurt.”

  Her voice trailed off to a whisper, and she started coughing.

  Luke knelt down beside the bed, and Merelith swiftly crossed to the other side and took her niece’s hand in her own.

  “I’m trying to be brave. Big girls are brave. But I don’t want to die,” Elisabeth said, her beautiful eyes welling up with unshed tears. “I’m afraid.”

  “You’re not going to die,” Luke said fiercely. “I’m the best wizard in the world, and I won’t allow it.”

  The child tried to smile, but even that slight effort was beyond her now. Instead, she turned her head and looked up at Rio.

  “Pretty,” she said, her eyes going dim.

  The words triggered a memory that was sharp enough to slice through the pain buffeting Rio from both her own heart and Luke’s.

  She pinned Luke with a stare. “Did you hear that? She said pretty.”

  She could tell he didn’t get it, but it was okay, because now she did.

  “Pretty. It’s what you kept saying to me when that Grendel venom had poisoned you. Is it possible—is it possible at all—that the Grendels scratched her when Dalriata had her?”

  Luke was shaking his head. “I never even thought of that because the symptoms are so different. If this is Grendel venom—”

  “The Winter Court Fae react very badly to many types of venom,” Merelith interjected. “And who knows how her human half would react? Is it possible?”

  Rio didn’t wait any longer. She put her hands on either side of Elisabeth’s hot little face, and she sent her thoughts winging deep inside the child’s mind. She’d never tried anything quite so delicate before, and she was still desperately afraid of the possibility of harming the girl, but she wasn’t about to let Elisabeth die because Rio was too much of a coward to even try.

  She looked, and she Looked, and she saw. Flashes of what Elisabeth had felt and seen and done.

  Trying to run, terrified, when she’d been abducted.

  Sitting quietly in an empty office and crying for her mommy.

  Refusing to eat a sandwich.

  Crying; she’d been so afraid of the creature who was picking her up—her shoulder hurt—crying again.

  Rio released her hold on Elisabeth’s mind, and hope and relief rushed through her in equal measures.

  “Yes. The Grendel scratched her accidentally. It was actually trying to be very careful with her, but Elisabeth has a clear memory of feeling a tiny pain on her left shoulder.”

  “We didn’t see anything,” Merelith began, but then she stopped wasting time talking and gently pulled the girl’s nightgown down and off her left shoulder. Sure enough, there was a tiny pink scratch, no bigger than half an inch, but it was swollen and angry looking.

  “That wasn’t there before, I swear it. If my negligence is what causes this child to die—” Merelith collapsed on the bed next to Elisabeth, pulling the child into her lap. Silvery tears streamed down the Fae’s face.

  “She’s not going to die,” Luke said firmly. “Rio, hand me that cup of juice.”

  He was already digging in the pockets of his coat, and he produced a small vial of powder. He dumped about half of it in the juice and stirred it with his finger, then handed it to Merelith.

  “This isn’t exactly right, but it’s close enough. It will bring her back from the brink and give me plenty of time to mix exactly the right antidote for her.”

  Merelith was already urging the child to drink. Drop by agonizingly slow drop, the juice was making it into Elisabeth’s mouth, and she was swallowing it down. Within three minutes, color had begun to return to the child’s face. Within five more, Elisabeth opened her eyes and smiled up at them.

  “I think I would like to have a hot dog, please,” she said.

  Rio started laughing and crying at the same time, and Luke shouted out a joyous whooping sound. Merelith hugged her niece tightly, rocking back and forth, and then she sang out a word that Rio didn’t know, and silvery bells sounded in the distance.

  “I have just called for all the hot dogs you could possibly eat, and pancakes and tea cakes and jam,” Merelith told Elisabeth. “We are going to have such a wonderful day. I will send all of my guardsmen out to find you pajamas with rodents on them.”

  Elisabeth’s laughter pealed, sounding a lot like the little bells. “Oh, Auntie Merelith. You are too funny.”

  Luke put a hand on Rio’s shoulder. “We need to go. I have to do that thing in the office.”

  “Will you please bring Kit back with you for a visit?” Elisabeth asked, smiling up at Luke, and Rio actually felt the sunlight break through the darkness inside him at the sight of the little girl’s happiness and obvious recovery.

  “The wizard is going to whip up some very special medicine, which will make you completely better, and then we’ll bring it back to you, and we’ll bring Kit with us. She misses you, you know. She loves little girls,” Rio told Elisabeth, who smiled even more radiantly at the news.

  Rio had to turn her head a little so the child wouldn’t see her tears.

  As Luke
and Rio started to leave, Merelith stopped them. “Luke. I know you travel with the Shadows. If it will speed your way to aid my niece, I will open a space for you to return to your office and then travel back here to my rooms.”

  “That would help a lot,” Rio answered for him, when he looked like he was weighing the pros and cons of the offer. “Thank you.”

  Merelith’s glance was weary but almost fond as she looked at Rio. “You have just thanked me again, young one. Will you never learn?”

  “There’s a good chance I won’t,” Rio said cheerfully, too happy to be insulted or worried.

  The Fae just shook her head. “Stand in the exact center of the blue carpet, on top of the largest fleur-de-lis, and you’ll be able to access your Shadows there, just for today.”

  Elisabeth’s eyelashes fluttered closed, and Merelith looked up in alarm.

  “It’s okay to let her sleep now,” Luke reassured her. “She probably needs some real rest. Wake her up within the hour and give her a good meal, fruit and protein, but don’t let her eat too much of it. We’ll be back by early evening with an antidote tailored specifically to Elisabeth. I still have a sample of her blood that I can use to be sure it’s right.”

  Merelith nodded, the strain relaxing out of her tight posture. “I will never forget this. You may be sure of that.”

  Luke nodded, and Rio smiled, and then they headed for home. Traveling through the Shadows didn’t even bother Rio this time because she was so happy she felt as though she could have floated across Bordertown and back to Luke’s all on her own.

  “You did it,” Rio told him, when they arrived back in his office. “I knew you would.”

  “No, we did it, and I couldn’t have figured it out without you.” Luke bent his head to kiss her, and all the terror, pain, and joy of the morning swept them both into a whirlwind of sensation.

  It was a very long time later when she finally pulled back, gasping and laughing a little, to catch her breath.

  “Now it’s my turn to make breakfast, while you make an anti-Grendel antidote,” she told him.

  When she opened the door and walked back into Luke’s house, she noticed two things right away. First, all the walls had been painted a virulently hot pink.

  Second, Meryl Streep was sharpening knives in the kitchen.

  CHAPTER 20

  Luke figured he’d grab some fresh coffee before he got started, so he took their discarded mugs and headed into the house after Rio. He almost ran into her back before he realized that she’d stopped dead in the middle of the doorway, so he looked past her and then almost dropped the coffee cups.

  “What in the hell is that?

  Rio bit her lip. “It appears to be Meryl Streep sharpening knives, but I’ve been fooled before, so I’m going to go with Alice is back.”

  He wondered if he needed to find some guys to hang out with so he could have friends whose conversations he actually understood.

  “No,” he said carefully. “I would like to know why the walls of my house look like the inside of an Iguanosaurus exploded all over them.”

  “I saw one of those in the Caribbean once,” Meryl Streep said, shuddering. “Nasty creature. Easily nine feet tall.”

  “The pink paint is on the ceiling, too,” Rio pointed out helpfully.

  “I’m just guessing, but I think you may have annoyed the fox,” Meryl Streep said, as she began to chop vegetables. “I’m making chili. Beef and sausage okay, or does anyone have any preference?”

  “I love chili,” Rio said, crossing over to the counter and taking a seat. “Also, I loved you in The Devil Wears Prada. Is there anything I can do to help? I was going to make breakfast, but it can wait.”

  “I brought scones,” Meryl Streep said, pointing to a blue box. “Feel free to nosh while we catch up.”

  “My walls are pink,” Luke said, being sure to enunciate clearly, in case they hadn’t heard him the first time.

  Kit trotted into the room and hopped up into Rio’s lap, putting her head on Rio’s shoulder, and he could have sworn that the fox cast a smug look at him. Rio hugged and petted the little animal, ignoring Luke completely, so he closed his eyes and counted to ten.

  When he opened his eyes, the walls were still pink.

  “Is this because you’re pissed off that I took Rio to the Silver Palace without you?”

  Enormous purple-and-yellow-striped flowers appeared on the walls, and they were so shiny that the glare was driving spikes into Luke’s skull.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” he ground out. “I’m sorry. I said I was sorry, so get off your furry little butt and change my walls back to what they were.”

  Meryl Streep frowned. “You don’t really sound like you’re sorry, love. You sound like you’re ready to blast something.”

  “Meryl Streep doesn’t have a British accent, love,” he retorted.

  Meryl grinned, and suddenly Alice was standing there. “Sorry. I forgot.”

  “She was only trying to protect me,” Rio said. “Weren’t you, sweetheart?”

  Kit snuggled closer to Rio, and Luke glared at her. Suddenly Rio’s cheeks turned pink.

  “What did that annoying Yokai just say?” he demanded.

  “There’s no way I’m telling you what she just said. There is nothing in my job description that says ‘fox translation service.’”

  She put Kit down on the floor, and it was Luke’s turn to grin smugly.

  “In fact, I will quit feeding you if you don’t stop saying things like that,” Rio said hotly to the fox.

  Whatever Kit said, it must have been good, because Rio’s cheeks blushed even hotter, and she threw her head back and groaned.

  “Okay, fine. Kit said to tell you that if you want to talk about furry butts, she’s not a big fan of having to see yours walking down the hall in the middle of the night,” Rio said with her eyes tightly closed.

  “While that sounds like a lovely story, why don’t we cut to the chase?” Alice pointed at Luke. “You. Apologize like you mean it.”

  Then she pointed at Kit. “You. Change those walls back, or you’re not getting any of this lovely sausage, not even the bit I bought especially for you.”

  Rio made a noise that sounded suspiciously like muffled laughter, but Luke decided to be the bigger person and ignore her. He apologized as gracefully as he could manage to Kit, and pink, purple, and yellow disappeared from his walls.

  Rio whistled. “Wow. That’s pretty impressive.”

  Alice shrugged. “Yokai. Now, which do you want to hear first? The story about how the League has new offices in town? Or the one about the bolt of lightning that took out Dalriata and his entire office building in the middle of a cloudless morning?”

  Luke took a chocolate croissant out of the box, tore off a corner, and gave it to Kit as a gesture of truce. “I’d wondered how long it would take Merelith to retaliate.”

  Rio’s face had turned pale. “Oh, no! Abernathy. Alice, did you hear anything about the doorman? His name was Abernathy. I hope that he’s okay.”

  Alice stopped chopping and dicing and put her knife down on the side of the cutting board. She rubbed one hand over her face, and Meryl Streep reappeared and then disappeared, leaving only Alice behind. Luke realized that he was so used to her disguises that sometimes he didn’t even see them, even when she was wearing them. She was always simply Alice to him.

  “Abernathy is just fine. I called him away for a lunch date just before the lightning bolt struck,” Alice said, smiling warmly at Rio. “He’s been a friend of mine for a long time, and I’m glad to know you cared about what happened to him. Not many would spare a thought for a mountain troll.”

  “I only met him that one time, but he seemed like a very nice person,” Rio said. “But wait. You said you called him away to lunch just before it happened. Did you know in advance—”

  “Better not to ask,” Luke advised. “Alice always knows things, and Alice never tells. It’s part of her charm.”

&nbs
p; They filled her in on what had happened with Elisabeth, and Alice insisted on opening a bottle of champagne to toast the little girl’s health.

  “That poor kid is going to need all the friends she can get. Things are not looking good for her mother. I heard she might have been taken as a hostage in Europe. And after what happened to Merelith’s other sister—well. It’s just not a very lucky family when it comes to the female heirs to the throne,” Alice said.

  “Merelith told us that Elisabeth could never inherit, so at least she doesn’t have to worry about that,” Rio said.

  Luke frowned, still thinking about Dalriata’s building. “Merelith isn’t the type to worry about collateral damage. I hope no innocent people were harmed or killed.”

  Alice shook her head. “No, Dalriata owns the whole building, and it was mostly empty, except for himself, a couple of his thugs, and that nasty woman he kept chained to the front desk.”

  “She didn’t seem like a prisoner to me,” Rio said, her brow furrowing.

  “She was no prisoner. She probably chained herself there. She and Dalriata had a weird on-again, off-again relationship, and every time he tried to dump her, she hunted him down.”

  Alice shook her head. “Very unhealthy. The woman needed to watch more daytime talk shows to gain a little self-esteem.”

  Luke grabbed his coffee mug and filled it, took another croissant, and started to head back for his office to make Elisabeth’s antidote.

  “Luke, stay a moment,” Alice said, her voice uncharacteristically solemn. “There’s one more thing I learned, and you’re both going to need to hear this.”

  Rio buried her head in her hands. “Every time somebody tells me I need to hear something, another piece of my life crashes and burns.”

  “I’m sorry to say that this is more of the same. The whole incident with Dalriata taking Elisabeth? It was part of a plot by the League to frighten Rio into joining.”

  Luke swore a blue streak under his breath. “I’m going to kill that son of a bitch. When I find Maestro, I’m going to tear his head off and offer it to the Bordertown bowling league.”