by Amy Patrick
Now all their gazes rested on me. I started backing away, my palms up in front of me, my hammering heart rising up to block my throat.
“You don’t mean... I don’t think I can... I can’t go back there. I wasn’t going back there—ever. I don’t want to work for him anymore. You don’t know what Audun is like.”
“But you do,” Lad said. “And apparently he trusts you—he sent you here to strike a blow against the Light Court. He arranged for you to be betrothed to his son. If anyone can get close to him, you can.”
“But Culley knows what I did,” I argued. “... confessing to you and repairing the damage to your memory. What if he tells Audun?”
I’d never been the direct recipient of Audun’s wrath, but I’d certainly heard the rumors. At times, I’d been one of his methods of punishment.
“Culley cares about you, Ava,” Ryann said. “I suspect he could be very easily persuaded to keep his mouth shut, as long as he believed there was a chance you cared for him, too.”
“No. I can’t. There’s another aspect to Audun’s glamour—and if Culley has inherited it, he’ll know what I’m up to. Audun is like a walking, breathing lie detector. He can lie to anyone, but no one can lie to him. I’ve seen it in action.”
“And I’ve seen you and Culley together,” Vancia said. “There is something there—attraction at least. We need you Ava. You’re the only one who can get inside the Dark Council and tell us what’s really going on. Many lives may depend upon it—human and Elven.”
As she spoke the last word, her gaze drifted over to Nox. She was clearly afraid for her husband’s life. As long as the Dark Council was plotting against him and against peace with the Light Elves and with humans, Nox’s life would be in jeopardy.
I couldn’t let the two of them go to L.A.
But I also couldn’t go back there myself. I had changed. I had gotten a taste of what it was like to make my own decisions. I’d seen a glimpse of a future free from hurting and using others for the gain of the Dark Council. The thought of being in Audun’s presence again, under his thumb again, made my skin crawl and my belly sick with dread.
Casting a glance to the side, I saw Asher sitting in the cab of his truck, waiting patiently as I’d asked him to do. Suddenly, a ride with him in Big Red seemed very, very appealing. I wanted nothing more than to climb up into the seat beside him, turn up the radio, roll the windows down, and tell him to drive as far and as fast as possible in the opposite direction from the west coast. The Florida Keys were sounding just about perfect right now.
“I know you’re afraid,” Ryann said, obviously reading my emotions. “I know what it feels like to worry that your heritage and your glamour make you a bad person. I’ve been there. But this could be the first step toward forgiving yourself and moving ahead free and clear from guilt. Running away might sound attractive, but you can’t run from yourself or your past. You have to face them.”
Shaking my head and fighting tears, I whispered, “No. I can’t. I’m sorry.”
“Think about it. You could turn your gift into something beneficial instead of something destructive,” Lad encouraged. “I’ve learned that myself about my leadership glamour. I couldn’t run from my birthright. Instead, I adapted it to my own identity. You have a choice here. I’m asking you to help us—help the humans, like your friend Asher.”
Before I even had a chance to do the natural thing and turn to look at Asher again, there was a loud cry from his direction. His voice. I recognized it though I’d never heard it that loud—or that upset—before.
“No! No. What was he doing there?” he said.
I whipped my head around to see him, now standing beside his truck, the door wide open, and a man talking to him with a hand outstretched to Asher’s shoulder as if to calm him. Or comfort him.
Without a word to my companions, I ran toward him, reaching his side in moments. “Are you okay? What’s wrong? What happened?”
Asher’s face, which had been so appealingly tan before, was now whitewashed with shock. He turned his dazed eyes to me. “It’s Granddaddy. He was in the church. They took him to the hospital and then transferred him to Oxford—he’s in the intensive care.”
“Oh no,” I wheezed, finding it hard to breathe. I didn’t know Asher well, but I knew his granddaddy was extremely important to him. This put a very real face on the tragedy. It wasn’t just the destruction of Ryann’s factory and the important product being made there.
It wasn’t just “humans” who’d been hurt. It was someone’s loved one. Asher’s loved one. It could easily have been him who was caught in the crossfire of the Dark Elves’ plot against the humans, and that thought was nearly unbearable.
“I’m so sorry,” I told him, wrapping my arms around his waist.
He covered my head with a large hand and pulled it in to his chest, crushing me against him. When that big chest began to shake and then to heave with sobs, my own heart cracked open. I buried my face against him and held him as tightly as I could, whispering over and over again, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
He could never understand how sorry I was. My people had done this—maybe even my former fiancé. Lad and Ryann were right. I had to do something. I couldn’t let Audun get away with hurting people like Asher and his family. If there was anything I could do to stop him—I had to try.
Chapter Three
Something Precious
“I have to go see him.” Asher’s voice was hoarse with grief and worry.
“Of course.” I nodded against his chest, loosening my arms and stepping back to see his tear-streaked face. God, he was beautiful. Not perfect in the way Culley was, but imperfectly, completely beautiful. And it killed me to see him like this.
Motion in the periphery caught my eye. Culley stood leaning against the rear bumper of a white Jaguar parked down the street. He looked straight at me. Let’s go Angel. It’s getting a bit hot around here. There’s a whole squad of state police cruisers headed this way.
As if on cue, a loud siren wailed through the muggy evening air.
If you think I’m going anywhere with you... I let the thought end there. Even as I refused him I realized what I had to do. If I was going to go back to the Dark Council and help the Light Court, I needed a way to get there. My car was destroyed. I didn’t have any identification or any money or even a phone.
Be reasonable, love, Culley said. Based on what you said earlier about small-town police, you and I need to make ourselves scarce before the big guns arrive on the scene.
Unaware of our silent conversation, Asher took my hand. “Come with me to the hospital?”
I looked back up into his distraught face. Then over at Culley again. Everything inside me wanted to stay with Asher. But I met his gaze—for one last time—and told him no.
“I can’t. I’m so sorry. I wish I could but I have to go.”
“Go? Back to California? Right now?” He glanced to the side. He obviously spotted Culley, too, because his eyes narrowed, and his jaw hardened. “With him?”
I nodded. “I know you don’t understand. But I really have no choice.”
The remarkable turquoise eyes seemed lighter, glistening with tears. “I wish I could take you—I know I said I’d drive you wherever you need to go. I wanted to be there for you... but... my granddaddy.”
His voice broke on the last word, grabbing my heart and pulling a piece of it off for himself. How could he be apologizing to me? How could he even be thinking of me at all? He had his own problems now.
Anyway, the best thing I could do for Asher was get out of his life. One day, if I managed to succeed in taking down Audun and his followers, I would know I’d helped Asher in a distant, indirect way. That would have to be enough.
I pulled away from him and started walking toward Culley, my throat tight and sore, an uncomfortable pressure building behind my eyes. I will not cry. I will not cry.
“Ava—wait.”
I turned to see Asher closing the
distance between us. Was he going to kiss me again? My heart leapt into an erratic rhythm at the thought. But no, he was holding my overnight bag in one hand and my purse in the other.
“Here.” He handed them over to me. “What about your suitcase? You’re not even going to wait for that?”
I shrugged. “They’re just clothes.” Designer clothes that had cost a fortune and would end up buried in a junkyard in rural Mississippi. It didn’t matter at the moment. Not when I was leaving something far more valuable behind.
On impulse, I removed my most precious possession—a ring my dad had worn. It was a gold and silver band, engraved inside with Elven script. I knew Asher would never be able to read the words, but I didn’t care. For some inexplicable reason, I wanted him to have it—desperately. I pushed the ring into his hand.
“This is for you.”
He opened his palm and looked down at the shiny circlet, which looked impossibly small in his huge palm. “It’s pretty. What is it?”
“It’s just... a trinket. You saved my life. Twice. And I want to give you something... so that maybe you’ll remember me—or something. I don’t know.” It was a mistake. I shouldn’t have done it. And I shouldn’t say what I was about to say—if I could even get the words out around the sob that was threatening. “I’ll never forget you, Asher.”
And then I turned and literally ran toward the car where Culley waited behind the wheel. Throwing my bag into the back first, I climbed into the passenger seat.
“Go,” I said to Culley, and as we pulled away, I did not look back.
Not with my eyes anyway.
Chapter Four
Change of Plans
“So...” Culley began, wearing a smile that was a little too self-satisfied.
“Don’t talk to me,” I muttered. “I’m only here because I literally have no other choice.” Staring at the landmarks of the tiny town passing outside the window, I felt as if bits of my heart were snagging on them and ripping away. Nothing in me wanted to leave here. Nothing in me wanted to go home.
Culley followed my request, refraining from conversation as the miles slipped away, and I hunkered down for the twenty-eight hour drive to Los Angeles. I was the first to break the long silence, but only because he’d missed a crucial turn near Memphis.
“You were supposed to take I-40 west toward Little Rock.”
The corners of his lips lifted slightly. He kept driving, totally unbothered by the fact he’d missed the exit and we were now heading east instead of west.
Straightening from my slumped position, I looked around. “What’s going on? What are you doing? Are we going to pull off for a break or something?”
Culley’s eyes stayed on the road. “We can if you need one. I’m fine to keep going for a while.”
I stared at his profile, ridiculously handsome and irritatingly smug. I had a bad feeling. “Culley... where are we going? The sign says this takes us through Nashville.”
Culley nodded. “Yes. And eventually leads to New York.”
“New York? We’re going to the city?”
“Father decided a break from the ‘heat’ was in order.” He glanced over at me briefly. “He knew Nox would charge off to California as soon as he got wind of the explosion. Father’s instructed us to report to his office in Manhattan. You have a place there as well, right?”
Knocked off balance by the sudden change of plans, I responded in a distracted tone. “It’s not mine—a bunch of us use it as a flop house when we’re in the city for modeling jobs. I have about six roommates who rotate in and out.” My mind raced, trying to figure out what this all meant. For one thing, it meant I’d be facing the Dark Council leader not in three or four days, but in two. New York was only about seventeen hours away by car.
“You talked to Audun today?” I asked.
“I did.”
“And...” I waited for him to continue but he stayed frustratingly silent. “What did you tell him about me?” I needed to know whether I was about to walk into a hornet’s nest or a pit of burning lava. One option would be painful. The other, deadly.
“Don’t worry—I didn’t inform him of your... change of heart.” He smirked. “I’ll leave that to you. I did have to tell him your efforts to stop the wedding and drive a wedge between the Perfect Brothers were unsuccessful.” Culley’s eyebrow lifted. “He was not pleased.”
“I bet. So... go on. I’m sure he was pleased when he heard how successful your mission was.”
His expression shuttered. “We didn’t really discuss it.”
My arms folded across my chest as I arched one brow at him. “Right. You didn’t tell him about the factory.”
Now Culley’s blasé tone changed, turning sharp with annoyance. “I’ve told you repeatedly—that wasn’t me.”
“Oh really? You’re telling me you had nothing to do with it?” Mind to mind, I challenged him. Admit it, Culley. You know I’m not perfect. I can hardly throw stones at you. Just be honest.
“Speaking of honesty and past sins... what exactly did you do for my father that has you so morose and self-flagellating?
I glared at Culley. Stop stalling. Did you or did you not blow up the factory?
Pulling his gaze from the road, he aimed it directly at me and answered mind to mind. No. I did not. His eyes returned to the road, and he drove in silence.
Could it possibly be true? I wanted to believe him. I didn’t want to believe he was capable of such wanton disregard for human life, that he was as evil as his father. But I couldn’t be sure. He’d been so evasive with me, so cryptic about his mission in Altum. When we’d parted yesterday in the woods, he’d said he had “everything he needed.” What did that mean? Maybe he’d actually tell me.
“Since we’re being all open and honest now... what was your mission if not to disrupt the tea production?”
He cleared his throat, shifting in the driver’s seat. “I’m not at liberty to discuss it.”
Of course. Frustrated, I came back with, “Well, if you’re so loyal to your father, why didn’t you tell him what I did?”
Culley grinned. “You’d rather I turned you in?” Shrugging his shoulders, he said, “You’re my betrothed. You’re so fond of the humans—don’t they have some sort of law about not testifying against your better half?”
“That’s not an answer, Culley.”
“I have my reasons. Just as I suppose you have yours for doing what you did. Speaking of which... why are you decorating my passenger seat and not tucked away in the charming Kingdom of Mud with your new BFF’s right now? What changed your mind about coming home with me? Afraid you’d miss me too much?”
“Terrified.” I rolled my eyes. And now we’d reached the point where I couldn’t be honest with him. I was here because I needed answers. From his father. From him. I had to find out who was behind the tea factory explosion and what else the Dark Council had up its sleeve. Returning to the Dark Court embedded with my “betrothed” was the most effective way to get it done.
I told Culley the only thing I could. “They aren’t my people. There’s no place for me there. At least at home I’m needed.” To help your father ruin people’s lives and take over the world. That was the part I didn’t say. I also didn’t tell him I’d be out of there as soon as I got the information I needed and secured my own transportation again. The explanation seemed to satisfy him.
“Too bad about your Corvette,” he said. “I always liked that car—very sexy—it fit you.”
I ignored his flirting.
“What do you think of this car?” He gestured to the posh interior of the Jaguar. “I picked it out with you in mind.”
I turned to look at him, baffled once again. Why would he do that? If what he said was even true. “It’s okay.”
Culley’s mouth turned sullen, and his tone soured. “I suppose you prefer big pickup trucks now,” he said. “One has to wonder why a guy feels the need to drive something that large. I have a theory about vehicles and compen
sating for—”
I cut him off. “There’s nothing going on between me and Asher, if that’s what you think.” The last thing I wanted was to transfer the target from my own back to Asher’s. He had nothing to do with any of this—I wouldn’t even be seeing him again.
Culley let out an incredulous laugh. “Right. It didn’t look like ‘nothing’ when you were exploring the inside of his mouth with your tongue.”
The air wheezed from my lungs. Culley had seen us kissing? I had thought he was out of sight distance. Or really, more correctly, I hadn’t been thinking very much at all. I’d been so blown away by Asher’s kiss I’d lost all awareness of our surroundings and who might or might not be witnessing that life-altering moment.
“That was... that was him, not me. And I stopped him.”
“Yes, I could tell you detested every minute of it.” Culley flicked his hand in a dismissive gesture. “No matter. Farmer Fred is back there in his natural habitat of Timbuktu, and you and I are on our way back to where we belong.”
I nodded as if agreeing, but New York City, Los Angeles, Milan—the places I’d lived and worked no longer felt like where I belonged. My mind drifted back down the highway to the quaint storefronts and churches and tree-lined sidewalks of the tiny southern town that slipped further away with every passing mile.
Then it drifted to that searing, mind-scrambling kiss—and my heart clenched into a painful knot. How could I have gotten so attached so quickly? It was stupid. It was impossible. And I would forget Asher... somehow. Sometimes I wished I could use my glamour on myself.
Chapter Five
Tootsie’s
It was a quiet ride. Painfully, mind-numbingly quiet. But once Culley and I established we didn’t trust each other, small talk was impossible.
His usual charm seemed to have evaporated, and I didn’t have the energy verbal sparring with him would require. We’d both have to develop some acting skills pretty damn quick if we were going to fool his father about our relationship when we arrived in New York.