by H A Titus
I sat and watched them—the way they both unconsciously leaned toward each other, the way they occasionally glanced up at each others' faces and then quickly looked away as if they were afraid of being caught. If there were any more sparks they'd catch the building on fire.
This would make things … interesting.
Josh handed the phone back to her. "Looks legit to me."
She nodded. "Now that we're done with that—"
"Just a second. I have a couple of questions I want to ask first." Josh crossed his arms.
I leaned an elbow on the back, swiveling my chair so I could see both Aileen and Josh's faces. What is he up to?
Aileen raised her eyebrows. "Okayyy."
Josh held up his right arm and motioned to the bracelet. "You're the one who told me to put this back on, and you seem interested in it. I'd like to know why."
"Is this information important?"
"Besides the fact that we're now allies, and allies share information? Look, I know you fae love your secrets, but I've been able to do stuff I'm not supposed to." He pulled the stone disk from his pocket and flattened his hand so Aileen could see the circle of stone growing and fading on his palm—which still made my skin crawl. "It protects me from glamour, and I've even been able to use it a little. I need to know what this bracelet does."
Aileen slid off the barstool and extended her hand. "You trust me?"
Josh nodded. He took the metal band off and handed it to her.
Aileen turned it over in her hands. Her fingers ran along the ground-down edges of the blade-like pieces, lifted the edges of the leather bands that bound the pieces together. After a few minutes, she sighed and press her lips together. "There are no markings on this, so I don't know its origin." She handed it back. "The first time we met, I could tell that this was a powerful relic. So when you said you didn't have it on, that worried me. I knew it would protect you."
"How? For all you knew it could've been an enslavement glamour, binding him to me," I cut in.
She shook her head. Her eyes flashed a light gray. "I didn't think your mind was that twisted, Eliaster."
Josh snickered. "But you still think it's a little twisted?"
Liam snorted and hid the laugh behind his hand.
Aileen grinned. "All fae minds are slightly twisted. Might as well get used to it."
"Oh, trust me, I've noticed."
"Hey." I shoved on Josh's shoulder.
Liam leaned forward on the bar, waiting for our laughter to die down before saying, "How did you know it was protective?"
Aileen climbed back up on her barstool and faced him. "What color are the stripes in my hair?"
"White," Josh said, at the same time that Liam and I said, "Purple."
Aileen pointed at Josh. "That's why. My glamour is strong enough to hide the color of my hair even from other fae. But Josh saw through it, when he should be the least likely person to do so. And, he told me on the phone that he was no longer seeing glamour. The only difference was that he wasn't wearing the bracelet."
Her glamour must be really strong, then. I recalled what Josh had told me about Liam's findings on the Airgeads. Aileen and her brothers had basically been bred for strong glamour. But even that didn't explain how strong her glamour supposedly was. I squinted at the colored stripes in her copper curls, but they stayed purple, no matter how much I tried to convince myself that they were actually white.
I glanced over at Liam. The faoladh hadn't moved from his casual lean against the bar, but his hand had tightened on the white towel he held. Something was making him nervous. Liam raised his eyes and caught me looking. He gave me a slight nod. What had he picked up?
Well, time for that later.
I swung my seat back around and motioned to Aileen's laptop. "Okay, time to get serious."
Aileen nodded and called the blueprints back up on the screen. "Drake usually holds galas in this room." She used her finger to circle around a huge foyer-type room. Then she eyed Josh. "You're going to stick out a bit."
"Not many humans?"
"Not many who are free-minded, anyway. The people my father hangs around tend to treat them as more playthings. There will probably be a few escorts who are humans—some fae think humans are exotic and exciting to have as lovers, but trust me, the humans there will be mesmerized or glamoured in some way."
Josh sighed. "Fantastic."
"How do we deal with that?" I asked.
"There's different ways, depending on what we decide to do." She swiped across the screen, calling up a blueprint of the second floor. "Drake pulls people out of the gala for private auctions, so at some point during the night, one of you will have to indicate that you're interested in that." She glanced over at me. "Josh and I've already discussed this. Did he explain?"
I nodded. "Favors, memories, basically curiosities other than gold. Yeah, I don't think we can afford his price." I made a face. "As much as that would simplify matters."
Josh grinned. "So it's a heist."
"Oh no." I pressed my hands to my temples and leaned my elbows on the counter. "Josh, this is not Ocean's Eleven or James Bond or whatever you've got going through your head—"
"Actually, you'll have to wear tuxes, so it'll be a little bit like James Bond," Aileen said.
I shook my head. "Stop encouraging him."
Josh held his thumb and forefinger a fraction of an inch apart. "Just a little, tiny, teensy-beensy bit like James Bond."
Aileen's face scrunched in disgust. "That means I'm the femme fatale."
"Ehh, wouldn't be a heist without one." Josh's ears immediately turned red, and his eyes rounded. "Umm—I shouldn't have—"
Aileen threw her head back, laughing.
I shot a glare at both of them. "You two are going to be the death of me."
"Where's his office?" Josh asked.
Aileen pointed. "Down this hallway, on the right. It's right off the foyer, but the problem will be that it's glamoured to appear as part of the wall. To get past it, you need this special pendant. I suppose I pass off mine to whoever is going to try to break into the office, but—"
Josh plunked Henry Blair's necklace on the counter. "Next step. Any glamoured traps or anything in the office?"
Aileen raised an eyebrow. "Well done. And no. But he has a safe hidden in the floor."
"Sounds like your thing then, Josh," I said.
Josh reached for his backpack. "Yeah, I can start looking up different ways to—"
"Actually, and hear me out on this, guys—I think Josh should be out here the whole time." Aileen tapped the big room again. "And here's why. You're human—you'll attract a lot of attention just by being there. But if you're with Cori or me, you'll be safe."
I could feel the tension knotting up my muscles with every word she spoke. Put Josh in the spotlight? That probably the stupidest idea.
"No offense," she said. "But you're not trained in fighting as well as Eliaster or I are. I'm worried what would happen if you ran into someone."
Josh nodded quickly—a little too quickly, as if he was trying to talk himself into it as well. "Yeah, it makes sense."
It did. And Aileen had shown every cooperation. Nothing I'd seen about her set off my alarms—like Larae had. Everything Josh and I and even Liam had found indicated that she had every reason to want to get away from her father. And Coriander … well, it said a lot about him that he hadn't pulled Josh into this because of the owed favor.
I still didn't like the idea of leaving Josh with Cori and Aileen, but I liked the idea of sending him to steal the pathstone even less.
I half-listened as Josh and Aileen finalized the plan, turning my own fears over in my mind. But as Josh stood to leave, I snapped my attention back to them. Josh left first, and I nodded goodbye to Liam and Aileen and started gathering my stuff.
"Aileen." Liam finally straightened up from leaning on the bar.
She stopped in the middle of grabbing her jacket from the back of her bar stool and
glanced up at him, eyes clouding faintly with a darker gray.
"What was it you weren't saying? About you having strong glamour?"
Aileen looked at me, then dropped her gaze to the floor. She fiddled with the piercings on her right ear. "I already told you that my brother and I were br—"
"There's more to the story," I said. I nodded to Liam. "He sensed that you weren't telling the whole truth. Better get it out now—if you break a faoladh's trust—"
"I don't mean to break trust!" she snapped, eyes flashing. "If you have to know, we're cursed."
I blinked. Cursed? Was that even a real thing any more? I looked over at Liam. He looked just as perplexed as I felt.
"Airgeads die young." Aileen's voice was rough, as if she was angry that we'd dragged this confession from her. "Family legend says that back when the paths to Tir Ni-all closed, our ancestor bargained with someone to keep his glamour strong, but it came with a cost. Airgeads never live past one hundred, and all of us die gruesome deaths. Da never let us forget it. So I hate talking about it."
I felt a bitter taste in the back of my throat. What kind of person was sick enough to make that kind of bargain? To continually remind your kids about it?
"So…" Liam said slowly. "How does this affect you wanting to leave?"
She shook her head. "It doesn't. I just want out. I'm sick of all of it and this is just another thing that I'd rather forget."
Liam looked at me and nodded. This was the truth. All of it. He turned back to Aileen. "I don't think you have to worry. Josh and Eliaster are good at what they do."
Well, now I just hoped we could live up to that hype.
As I turned to go, Aileen reached out and gripped my arm. "I didn't want to say it around Josh, but you know I'll take care of him, right?"
I spun around. "Why do you think you need to tell me that?"
She made eye contact with me. "Because I can tell that he means a lot to you. You're practically brothers."
I smirked. "And it's not because of anything you feel towards him?"
Aileen didn't break eye contact. "You have a problem with it?"
I shook my head. "It's the best place for him. Josh is smart, got a good head on his shoulders. As long as you and Cori can keep an eye on him, he'll probably be wheeling and dealing with the best of them." I put my hand over hers. "Thank you."
She nodded.
CHAPTER 29
JOSH
At least Eliaster got a kick out of me being fitted for a tux. I got poked by three needles and the smart-mouthy seamstress who, as my luck would have it, was an old friend of Roe's, pulled my ear.
But finally the torture was done, our stuff was jammed into the tiny trunk of Eliaster's super car, and we were off.
When I plugged the address Aileen had given us into Google, it pinged a place in upper New York state, about three hours away from New York City. Nothing except a dark blur showed up on street view, but it was a substantial-sized blur, which just added to my nervousness. This was so far above my pay grade.
I sighed. It was also almost too close to the Indiana Jones stereotype of evil, rich art collector. Except that Airgead was trying to rid himself of the relic instead of tricking us into finding it for him.
And after that, it was just a matter of not losing our minds on a nearly twenty-four-hour car trip. There were a few moments of snarling at each other, and I was mightily tempted to bean Eliaster on the head with one of the huge research books I'd brought along. More than once. The long trip did have one perk, though—it was long enough that Eliaster was forced to let me drive his fancy supercar.
Finally, though, the long trip was mostly behind us. Our last stop, when we'd changed into our tuxes at the local mom & pop gas station, had been over an hour ago. Eliaster was back in the driver's and I was adjusting and readjusting the bowtie around my neck.
"I think it would've looked badass arriving on motorcycles, personally," Eliaster muttered, gripping the steering wheel.
I tucked my chin to my chest, lowering my voice. "My name is Bond. James Bo—"
"Oh shut up!" Eliaster rolled his eyes.
I laughed, then reached over and adjusted my phone. I'd propped it up on the dashboard to function as a GPS, even though Eliaster grumbled about not using proper paper maps.
My stomach churned with nerves, but I kept repeating our plan in my head. Once we got in, I'd stay with Aileen or Cori. Be the distraction so Eliaster could sneak off and get the pathstone. I glanced out the window, watching the dark forest whip past us. I couldn't believe how dark it had gotten once it had hit late afternoon.
We came down a hill and around a curve, and the headlights flashed over an unobtrusive set of metal gate posts framing a blacktop driveway that wound away through the woods. The metal posts shimmered faintly, wrapped in some kind of glamour. Eliaster stomped the brake and turned sharply, screeching onto the pavement. I caught a quick glimpse of the symbol of a hand etched into the arch of the gate. Palm open, facing outward as if warding off something.
I swallowed. This would be fine. We'd be fine.
I fished the stone out of my pocket. It was slightly warm to the touch—warmer than it should have been from just sitting in my pocket. As Eliaster continued down the driveway, it gradually grew warmer and warmer.
"Umm, Eliaster—"
He looked over just as the stone flashed. Both of us flinched, and I yelped, throwing my free hand in front of my face. A hot spark snapped against my hand.
The car slammed to a halt.
The light died out as quickly as it had appeared, leaving faint sparkle of glamour floating around us. I blinked, trying to clear the spots from my eyes, and looked down at my hand. In my palm were a few flakes of ash, and my skin looked a little red and irritated.
"Holy crap," Eliaster muttered.
I followed his line of sight and gasped. We'd stopped on a curving hill. Below us, the trees fell away to the graceful, manicured lawn of a huge Gothic mansion. Light spilled from the windows, and old-style lamp posts lined the driveway, which circled in front of the doors and then curved off behind the house. All of it was framed against the rising backdrop of the just-visible Adirondack Mountains, black against the last streaks of red sunset.
"Holy crap," I echoed, my heart dropping into my stomach. I ran my hand through my hair. Sure, Eliaster and his family were rich, but they'd never flashed it beyond Eliaster's expensive modes of transportation or their ability to pull strings that I thought immovable. But this … this was so far beyond my depth.
As Eliaster eased the car forward, he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. "Ready?"
"As I'll ever be. How about you?"
Eliaster grinned, his teeth catching the moonlight that shone in through the sunroof of the car. "I'll be on my best behavior."
"That's what I'm afraid of." I sighed. It's okay. He knows the plan. It'll be fine.
He shrugged and started the car forward again.
I stuck my hand back in my pocket, double-checking. Shaughnessy's ring still felt cold to the touch, despite having been in my pocket since we left Missouri. I patted my wrist—my bracelet was there—and felt at my side for my knife and gun. Everything was in place.
We pulled up to the massive wooden front doors. Both of them were heavily carved with deep-rooted, many-branched trees bordered by Celtic braids. At each corner of the door, a dragon's head joined each braid.
"Heist time, baby," I said, trying to push back my nerves.
Eliaster snorted and rolled his eyes.
A valet jogged down the steps as Eliaster and I got out of the car. Eliaster palmed something—another set of keys?—from the driver's side door and tossed the valet his remote opener and the key he kept on the same ring. We headed up the wide, shallow steps to the front door.
Two other fae in suits stood waiting for us. One's frame and face were a bit square for a fae, and the other was tall, thin, and bald. Baldy stepped forward, nodding politely to us.
"Eliaster Tyrone and Josh MacAllister," Eliaster said.
"My name is Altru." He looked back and forth between us, his ice-blue eyes piercing. Whatever he saw, we must've passed muster, because he glanced at the screen of his phone, then stepped to the side and gestured. "If you would be so kind, please, step inside."
The square fae pulled open one of the doors. I blinked, trying not to stare. That door looked massively heavy, and he'd just swung it open as if it weighed nothing more than a cheap hardware store screen. We followed Altru inside.
The first room we stepped into was richly paneled in wood, with carved cubbies set into the wall on either side of us. Some of the cubbies held neatly folded coats, others contained weapons.
Altru gestured to the cubbies. "Unfortunately, due to the nature of his work, Mr. Airgead asks that his guests enter weaponless. I'm sure you understand."
I swore under my breath and started to reach for the gun tucked under my tux jacket.
Eliaster gripped my arm and glared at Altru. "Come on," he said. "You really think I'm going to leave my stuff here? Anyone could take off with it. Furthermore, I'm not about to walk in with a bunch of unknown fae—"
So much for being polite.
"Each cubby is armed with glamour to prevent anyone other than you retrieving your belongings," Altru interrupted. "Keyed to your touch. I give you my word and the word of your host that no one will take your belongings while you remain under his hospitality."
Even I caught the caveat there. Under his hospitality. So if we did anything to piss off Drake Airgead, we would no longer be considered under his hospitality, which would give any front door guards the right to grab our stuff before we could get to our weapons. I glanced at Eliaster and could tell from the pinched, sour look on his face that the same thought had occurred to him. But there really wasn't any alternative. I took off my jacket and shrugged off the harness that held my gun and knife, then placed it in a cubby and slid the jacket back on.
Eliaster hadn't moved.
"Well, am I gonna have to go in alone?" I asked him.
"I don't like this," he growled.
"Yeah, neither do I. You're welcome to go sit in the car."