by D. N. Hoxa
“Let’s go,” Aaron said, and he offered his arm. Reluctantly, I linked it to mine.
The wood of the door was half-broken, half-cracked. The moss around it gave off a heavy smell that made me breathe through my mouth.
Aaron’s body was as stiff as mine. We were both uncomfortable as he knocked on the door once. Neither of us had any idea what to expect, but we both held our breaths.
Silence for a long second. When the door opened, easily the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen appeared in front of us. Her wings, a sight I found terribly hard to take my eyes off, stood gracefully behind her back. Her long brown hair shone so much, it looked wet. She was wearing a dark blue dress that enhanced the blue of her eyes even more. I never was one to be jealous of other women, but she was an exception.
“The Elemental graces our night,” she said, raising a perfect brow. Her voice could put me to sleep any time of the day.
“We were invited by Kyahen,” I said. I was going to keep the talking to a minimum with everyone else but Kyahen, because I really wanted to stay out of trouble this time.
The fairy analyzed me for a couple of more seconds before she turned to Aaron and smiled seductively. I raised my brow at her instinctively before I could help it, but he didn't give any indication of being seduced. Good thing she wasn't using her glamour on him. I would hate to see him drool on that perfect suit.
Without another word the fairy stepped aside to make way for us. When we walked in and the door closed behind us, we were in an entirely different world.
That’s when I knew that the exterior of the building was pure glamour. The place was huge and everything in it perfect. Most things were golden-colored, starting with the carpet that was dark red and streaked with golden strings, the cocktail tables that were covered in white covers and laced down with a golden ribbons. The walls had a pale golden color and even the orchestra in the middle of the ballroom was playing golden instruments. The high ceiling was filled with crystal chandeliers that did wonders to the light coming from God knows what inside them. It was so absolutely amazing that I didn't realize my mouth was open until Aaron nudged me and offered his arm again. I took it eagerly.
Hundreds of fairies and halfs were in there, but most of them had wings. I searched for Kate’s yellow dress in the crowd, but I couldn’t see her. So many dresses. Each one more beautiful than the last. It was like we were surrounded by gods and goddesses, with so many colorful wings and gowns and suits that it was impossible not to lose yourself. The picture in front of me was so perfect that it hurt my eyes. I felt like an old, rusty nickel in their midst.
The music from the orchestra of fairies was hypnotizing. It made you want to let go of everything and just give in to the wave of the sounds. The fairy who had opened the door for us was nowhere to be seen, so I turned to Aaron to ask if he had any idea where Kyahen was. The confused look on his face told me that he had no clue. I sighed.
It was going to be a long night.
“Act like we fit in,” he whispered as he walked ahead to the crowd with me in his arm.
“We’re sticking out like sore thumbs.” We couldn’t fit in if our lives depended on it.
We’d barely made it to the outskirts of the crown when everyone started to turn to us. In less than ten seconds, every perfect fairy eye was on set on us.
“Ignore them,” Aaron whispered, and he was right. I didn’t hate instructions when they were given by him, unfortunately.
I was pretty sure my face was flushed. Too much attention from such perfect creatures will do that to you. Aaron stopped us around an empty cocktail table, and I let out a sigh of relief. The white flowers in the middle of it had no smell, although they looked pretty real. A second later, a half dressed as a waiter stopped in front of us with a white tray in his hand. The elegant glasses filled with honey-colored liquid were very inviting. He smiled at us and bowed his head slightly, before he offered us drinks.
We took the glasses and put them in front of us, careful not to even smell whatever was in there. The waiter disappeared the next second.
Aaron opened his mouth to say something when someone else beat him to it.
“Oh, my God! Isn’t this amazing?” A very drunk Kate called, and she practically fell on my shoulders while she tried to hug me. Her glass was more than half empty.
“Kate, how much have you been drinking?” She could barely stand on her feet, but she just giggled and stopped another waiter for another glass of whatever the liquid was.
“You two look seriously hot.” Oh, shit.
“Kate!” I warned her, but what the hell did I expect? She was drunk as fuck.
“No, I swear! So freaking cute I want to kiss the both of you. If I had my phone with me, I would’ve taken your picture.” She laughed like she couldn’t help it.
I contemplated my options. Hitting her hard on the back of her head so she would lose consciousness wasn’t an options. Too many fairies in there. Talking her out of this was only going to push her to comment more. Fuck. I could do nothing but turn my head the other way and hope she stopped.
“Kate, we’re waiting for Kyahen,” Aaron said. I didn’t need to look at him to know that he was smiling. The jerk.
“Yeah, and you need to go find Karly. Now.” Instead, Kate swallowed a mouthful of her drink.
“I don’t want to go find Karly. She’s mean to me. I don’t like it,” she said. Once again, I wanted to slap the living hell out of Karly.
“Listen, Kate. You need to go to the ladies’ room, and wash your face with cold water. Then, you need to find Karly, okay?”
Kate looked around, a half-drunk smile on her face. When she finally nodded, I almost ran after her. She could barely walk! How was she going to find Karly?
But when I saw Karly in the direction where she was headed, talking to a fairy with silver white wings, I sighed in relief. I didn’t need to babysit Kate—not that night.
“Sorry about that,” I mumbled, never meeting Aaron’s eyes.
“Don’t worry about it.” He was still smiling. I felt his eyes on my face, but I focused on the fairies around us instead. Luckily, they had already started to look away from us. Too much attention is never your friend. Best to keep a low profile.
I couldn't wait for Kyahen to find us. We would not be hard to spot at all.
“You’re leaving the day after tomorrow, right?” Aaron asked after a second. I only nodded. When he began to chuckle, I raised my brow. “You’re going to keep at this, aren’t you?” To spite him, I only shrugged. “We work together, Star. Stop being childish.”
I’d planned not to talk about this, ever again. Not for any reason. Apparently, I’d forgotten just how good Aaron was at getting under my skin, because my cheeks heated and my blood boiled. Goddamn him.
“I’m being childish?” I said, incredulous. “How the hell am I being childish?! I’m not the one who ran away from you like you’re some kind of a boogieman, Aaron!”
Shaking his head, he gathered his hands into fists. “You don't understand.”
“I don’t even want to understand.” Only because he wouldn’t explain it to me.
“Then just let it go!” he hissed.
My fingers were up in fists, too, and my blood rushed in my veins as I contemplated on the easiest way to break his nose. Or arm. Anything would do, really.
“I can't just let it go, goddamn it. I’m not you.”
Stop, I told myself. Stop, stop, stop! But I couldn't.
I regretted the words the second I said them, even more so when we were standing in a room filled with fairies. I didn't want him to know how desperate I was. It would change nothing, so why bother?
It wasn’t fair to even blame him. I was as cold and as heartless as they came. I never cared for anyone. I never formed attachments. That life had been so damn easy, I’d had no idea. He was right, I was being childish.
“Mortal drama always fascinates me.”
The voice that came from behind us
made us both jump. The fairy who had spoken was achingly beautiful. His dark hair fell slightly on his wide forehead. The eyes on that perfect heart-shaped face were as black as mine, his skin made vampires look like they had acne. He was wearing a black velvet coat that was probably cut just for him. He was a Greek god statue carved to perfection.
When his eyes met mine, I wanted nothing more than to stare at them for the rest of eternity.
“You must be the Raven,” he said, half a smile playing on his full lips. The Raven, he said. So this was Kyahen. His voice was the sweetest melody, and I slowly began to lose myself in it.
But then Aaron coughed. It was like a wakeup call. It was amazing how I hadn’t noticed that everything else but the fairy had become blurry. Now, as things came back into focus, I took half a step back and mentally slapped myself.
“Pleased to meet you, Kyahen.” So far, he was the only Unseelie fairy in the room.
His face lit up as he held both his hands in front of him. I really didn't want to touch him, but what other choice did I have? I held my plastic smile on together with my breath, waiting for the sensation to wash over me the second his skin touched mine.
Nothing, except that it was colder than usual. His hands were freezing.
“The pleasure is all mine. I am happy to make your acquaintance. Always delighted to meet beautiful creatures such as yourself,” Kyahen said. “I did hear that you were…” he stopped, rubbing his fingers together as he thought about the word he wanted to use, “…awe-inspiring, but the words do not do your beauty justice, my dear Raven.” As soon the words left his mouth, his energy touched me again. He was trying to draw me in.
“You’re very kind,” I said with a smile and tried to ignore Aaron who was looking at Kyahen with a deadly look on his face.
“Please, follow me,” the fairy said, and ignoring the stares the others were giving us, he headed for the corner of the room. The crowd lessened until we left it all behind, and we were in front of a red and gold velvet rope behind which was a round table and comfortable looking armchairs.
The space looked completely separated, thought it was in the same room as the Ball, barely five feet away from the nearest fairy. Whatever glamour Kyahen was using was very effective.
A waiter that appeared out of nowhere made way for us to cross to the other side. As soon as we did, and he put the rope back in its place, the music and the noise decreased to a minimum.
Other fairies were still looking at us when we took our seats, but I doubted anyone would hear anything we said. I relaxed just a bit, my polite, fake smile on my lips.
“Troubled times are ahead of us, don’t you think?” Kyahen said as the waiter offered him a half full glass with what look like ordinary wine in it.
“As troubled as the time we live in, I’m afraid,” I said. Looking away from his pitch black eyes was not an option, though I would’ve given an arm to turn to Aaron. Or anything else. “Good thing there are people like me—and you—that are going to at least try and change things.”
He smiled, the meaning of my words not lost on him. “My Queen did tell me about your preparations, and about Illyon,” Kyahen said, tapping his fingernails on the glass that rested on his knee. He referred to Grandmother as his Queen. I didn't know much about him, but since he was Unseelie, he would've had to swear his loyalty to Grandmother, which would mean he would be banished from the Unseelie Court forever. He didn't seem to mind, though. “How do you suppose you’ll find it? And if you do, how is the White Book of Wisdom going to help with the situation our worlds are in?”
It was like being interrogated by a police officer. A very beautiful, extremely distracting police officer. I swallowed hard and began to let my shields down, just a little. As soon as I did, Kyahen raised his brows when the air around us charged with the intensity of my power. A small smile of victory stretched my lips.
“I do intend to find Illyon. I have the first lead already.” Eleanor had given me Sam’s address, and there was no better place to start than with him. “And once I do, I will let it tell us how it’s going to help us.”
Diplomacy was never a strong suit of mine, and to be honest, I had no idea what I was going to find in Illyon, but my instincts told me that it was going to get us all out of this mess. I trusted my instincts.
“Interesting,” Kyahen whispered, just as I dropped my shields a little lower. He smiled coldly, and I returned it. “You are aware that fairies do not negotiate with mortals.”
To my surprise, Kyahen turned to Aaron, who was not afraid to reply.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Aaron said, a small smile playing on his lips. “We will all have to sacrifice something in order to get out of this with our freedom.”
Kyahen leaned his head to the side and analyzed him for a second. “True,” he finally said and turned to me again. “But do tell me, have you found anything interesting about the murdered fairies and nymphs? My people are the very reason I am here, after all.”
Asshole. I lowered my shields almost all the way before speaking. “It’s easy to claim you’re here for your people, then expect us to do the work for them. I’d expect you to have found the people responsible by now, but since you haven’t, I’ll tell you what we discovered. A mark on every victim’s arm. We are certain that it belongs to a Master Vampire.”
Aaron straightened in his chair. He was not comfortable with what I said to Kyahen, but Kyahen’s smile never wavered.
“Is that so?” he said, and I nodded.
“It is. I believe there is a traitor among the Council, and once I find him, I’ll make sure we get all the benefits.” Being vague was not fun, but I couldn’t trust the fairy just yet. Not without having his word.
“You are quite right, I’m afraid,” Kyahen said, shaking his head. “But you do know that we do not belong to the Red Rebels, do you not?”
I nodded with a grin. “But you belong to your Queen, and your Queen is us.”
Kyahen smiled a wicked smile. “Right again. I hear that you have reached an agreement with Edison?” He made it sound like a question.
“I have,” I simply said because I knew he was expecting a full explanation. And I wanted to leave him wanting to ask for more. When he saw that I wasn't going to explain any further, he continued.
“I see. And what will my benefit be if I, too, agree to help you?”
Ugh. The questions were so fucking annoying, I almost rolled my eyes.
“Exactly what we all will. Freedom, if we succeed. But we’re going to have to work together and hard if we want to take the Council down. I’m sure you know that as well as I do.”
I was aware that fey were selfish creatures and extremely lazy, but their whole world was at risk, and I doubted any creature out there wanted war.
Silence. I let my shields go all the way. The air sizzled with my energy—now more so because I had focused on it. And Kyahen felt it. He felt it all, and no matter what his words said, his face told me that he was impressed.
And finally, he spoke.
“You are very powerful, my dear Raven. And may I say that the name suits you all too well?” No, you may not, was what I really wanted to say, but, of course, I held my tongue and smiled instead. Politics were very tiring. “You do have potential, and therefore, for the sake of my Queen and my people, I will agree to help you.”
The second the words left his mouth, I put my shields back up. There, that was done. Kyahen gave me a raised brow and a wicked smile, one I gladly returned since I couldn’t very well jump up and down with joy.
“Truly impressive,” he said, then laughed dryly. “I might like you after all.”
“Then I’m sure you won’t mind a formal oath,” I said, my voice dripping politeness. I was so close, I would do just about anything to finish this right.
“Of course. How silly of me,” Kyahen said because he didn’t say he forgot out loud. We all knew it was bullshit, and bullshit was something fairies could not put in
to words. “I like those who are prepared,” he continued to lecture us, “but I am not very fond of people who think too highly of themselves. Nobody is irreplaceable.”
He made another attempt to draw me in with his glamour, and this time, he did not hold back. At all. My toes curled and a ball of flames ignited in my stomach. He was a whisper away from becoming the center of my universe. For I don’t know how many times that night, I was thankful that Aaron had come with me. It was through thoughts of him that I made myself resist. I was so focused that I didn’t even think about a reply.
And then, Kyahen smiled, and his glamour vanished into thin air. I almost let out a sigh of relief.
“But of course, that does not apply to you. There’s only one who can control the elements, as far as we know.”
Rolling my eyes wouldn’t have been a smart move so I didn’t.
“There’s only me, I assure you.” I didn’t know that for sure, but neither did he.
Kyahen grinned widely. “I give you my word, Star, that I will help you to the best of my abilities until the situation is cleared.”
Fucking fairy. “And I appreciate it, Kyahen. We all do. But I’ll ask the first favor from you right now, if that’s okay.”
“And what would that be?” he said, raising his brows.
“I already told you what we plan to do. Find Illyon. To do that, we’re going to need information, people, and everything else that missions like this require. Until the day that the Council is down and Queen Tytania once again rules the Seelie Court.”
The smile wiped right off his face, and for once, I wanted to kiss Simmons for making sure I failed my exam because I didn’t answer one fucking question correctly: When can you trust the fey?
The answer: when your request is specific and there are no loopholes they can work around.
“Are you suggesting I be at your service whenever you call on me?”
My smile grew. “That’s actually a very good idea. I’d like that, very much.” But Kyahen didn’t. He didn’t like it, but he was going to agree. I saw it in his eyes, a second before he nodded.