Etiquette of Exiles (Senyaza Series Book 4)

by Chrysoula Tzavelas

  “That wasn’t my heart,” she informed him, then felt her cheeks burn. She lengthened her stride.

  He kept up. “In a hurry, beautiful? Where are we going?”

  Penny almost said, Just trying to get rid of you and didn’t because as soon as she thought it, she knew it wasn’t true. She could get rid of him anytime she wanted, at least for a little while. And she wasn’t doing that, because he was companionship that wasn’t interested in her welfare. She didn’t have to keep secrets from him, and that made him almost comfortable to be around.

  “We’re getting some coffee,” she told him. “And feeding the pigeons.”

  “Ooh, a date.” He stuck his hands into his pockets.

  “Hah, hah. Do you even have a wallet?”

  “Nope.”

  Penny rolled her eyes and got him a small, blended frozen coffee. “Since you liked the ice cream.”

  “So considerate! Do we share? Two straws, eyes meeting?”

  “No, I have this one.” She showed him her cup.

  “Yours is much larger,” he said dubiously. “Why is mine so small?”

  She gave him a sweet smile and didn’t say another word until she’d made her way to some benches at the edge of a strip of greenery. Then she said, “You’re working hard at trying to make me fall in love with you.”

  “You’re making me work hard,” he said reproachfully.

  Penny frowned at her cup. “Am I? Does it normally work differently?” He shrugged and she pursued the topic. “I go to this group for people who have fallen in love with faeries and sometimes it happens so fast, so hard, it seems like the faeries must be doing something to them.”

  The corner of his mouth pulled to one side. “It’s quite possible there’re enchantments at work, although if they’re resisting enough to seek help, the enchantments are very weak. But so many of your people are so enthralled by the idea of magic that it really requires very little to attract somebody who’s already desperate to get away.”

  “Why haven’t you just enchanted me? Wouldn’t that be enough? Quick and easy, problem solved.”

  He pulled the straw from his frozen coffee and licked it. “You’re not really enchantable anymore. Not by somebody with any sense of self-preservation anyhow. It seems like it would go badly.” He grinned at Penny. “This is technically inconvenient for my allies, but turns out to be a lot more fun for me.”

  “How lucky,” murmured Penny. Her thoughts went back to Blaze’s explanation of faerie enchantment of human hearts. “I can’t imagine you’re the only one who thinks it’s more fun this way. Where’s the pleasure in just having a treasure fall into your hand? And yet, there’s something going on there.” She thought of color wheels, of two markers from different color families laid down side by side, and the way the edges fuzzed together. Something nagged at her, something about fuzzing.

  Her phone rang and she frowned when she glanced at it. “Speak of the devil,” she muttered and answered it. “Hello, Robert.”

  “Hi, Penny,” he said with an artificial smile in his voice. “I’m just calling to find out if you’ve made a decision about the tissue sample yet.”

  “It’s been a day, Robert,” she said gently. “I’ve barely had time to think about it yet.”

  “Oh.” He sounded puzzled. “Haven’t you? It’s a pretty simple decision and we’d really appreciate the information it would provide. I could bring the kit to you.”

  “Well, at the moment I’m pretty uncomfortable with the idea, and this isn’t helping me feel better about it.” She rolled her eyes at Blaze, who leaned on his hand and watched her with wide, improbably innocent eyes as he drank his coffee.

  “But there’s nothing to make you uncomfortable in it. All we want is information. It’s not like we’re going to somehow extract your secret history, or use it to grow a fully functional clone in seven days, or anything like that. Haha.”

  “Yes, I saw that movie too,” said Penny patiently. Her parents had produced it, but it wasn’t something one liked to mention.

  “Well, it’s fiction,” he said sullenly.

  “And yet, there are so many ways a person’s cells can be used in ways nobody anticipated at the time.” She sighed. “Tell you what, Robert. You have your people draw up a legal agreement for exactly how my tissue will be used, and I’ll have my lawyer check it out.” It felt cruel, but he was asking a favor, and he was being annoying about it.

  “Fine,” he said, surprising her. “I’ll have it at the next meeting.”

  Blaze reached the bottom of the frozen coffee and started rattling the straw

  “Great. It’s getting hard to hear at the moment, so I’ll talk to you again then,” she said pleasantly, then hung up and dropped the phone on the bench. “That man! Will you please stop that!”

  Blaze stopped and precisely tossed the cup into a trash can a yard away. “I’m sorry. I was feeling neglected. It was a desperate cry for attention.”

  Penny turned her mouth down at the faerie. “This is probably your fault somehow. Once upon a time, I would have been happy to help this guy. But now, thanks to you, I can’t help wondering where exactly it stops. I keep wondering if he wants to dissect me.”

  “That would hardly work. It’s not like what makes you so unique can be accessed through your flesh, as delightful as your flesh is.”

  “Well, some people disagree. And they’ve got a whole setup dedicated to studying the fleshy side of magic.

  The tips of his orange hair shimmered into translucent blue, but he stayed silent, listening to her.

  “I can’t believe he called me to nag me about this. And who knows where it stops? You came into my bedroom. Will he come into my bedroom? And God, what is he doing to those other people?” She thought of Miki, who hadn’t sounded like they were there willingly, and Shandra, who didn’t seem to have any trouble resisting her faerie suitor. “I mean, a support group to help people resist your charm, that’s a great idea, but why does he have people there who don’t want the help? It’s weird.” She realized belatedly that Blaze was staring at her with unusual intensity. “And why am I talking to you? I have to go. And so do you.” She raised her hand as if to flick him away.

  “Don’t banish me, please” he said abruptly. “I have some things I’d like to do.”

  Penny hesitated. “Leave me alone for a while, then.”

  He rose to his feet, gave her an out-of-place bow, and walked off briskly. She watched him go, wondering if she ought to have sent him away. Probably she should have. Probably she ought to send them all away, each time she found one.

  Brooding about that, she went home.

  The next day, around three in the afternoon, Shandra called Penny. Penny didn’t recognize the number but did immediately recognize Shandra’s voice when she said, “Hello, is this Penny Karzan?”

  “It is. Hi, Shandra.” Penny stacked some papers on her design shelf, stuff she hadn’t quite been willing to toss into the big recycling bin she’d lugged inside. “How’s your day going?”

  “Not so great. Sorry to bother you, but I saw your number on that Robert’s paperwork and remembered it. I remembered your story about your fae guy, too.”

  “It’s not a problem,” said Penny warmly. “What can I do for you?’

  “Uh, can you meet me? I think the help of a support group buddy could come in pretty handy right now. Especially yours.”

  Penny froze, then put down the rest of her papers. “Tell me where.”

  Shandra was at a frozen yogurt place in a dingy shopping center about ten minutes away, leaning against the wall outside, with her baby in her arms. She straightened up, patting the baby on the back. “Faster than I expected. Thanks.”

  “I was lucky.” She was lucky she hadn’t gotten pulled over for speeding, anyhow. Penny looked around. “What’s going on?”

  Shandra tilted her head toward the froyo place’s window. “In there. Jenzie was going to treat me, and then he showed up. I couldn’t get her t
o come away.”

  Jenzie sat at a table, her sheet of brown hair hanging down over her face. Across from her, leaning in, was a handsome, distinctly faerie male, with spikes of golden hair forming an unlikely halo around his head, and pointed ears straight out of a computer game. Blaze didn’t have pointed ears, Penny thought distractedly.

  “That’s Helion,” said Shandra grimly. “She doesn’t want to be with him, but he doesn’t care what she wants.”

  “A pretty good sign that he’s not the right person for her,” murmured Penny.

  “Yeah, I told her the same thing and she’s trying to be a good girl, but here he comes and he’s damn hard to resist. So I was thinking…. I wonder if you could help?”

  “Yes,” said Penny decisively. “I can.” She pulled the door open and went into the shop.

  “—Honey.” Helion was mid-sentence. “I want to know who else you’ve been with. I can tell there’s been somebody else, I can see your soul fraying away.” He glanced up at Penny and his eyes widened before he looked back at his target. “And you won’t be lucky enough to end up like the Gatekeeper here. Not everybody loves you enough to take care of you like I will, once your soul is burnt away.”

  Penny gave Helion the same glance she’d give an out of place chair, then crouched down beside Jenzie, looking under her hair at her face. The other woman’s body was still, but her eyes were darting from side to side, as if she was trying to will herself into getting up and going away. “Hey. Is this guy bothering you?”

  “Yeah,” whispered Jenzie. “You could say that.”

  “Want me to help?” Penny continued, ignoring whatever bullshit explanation Helion had started spouting.

  Jenzie’s shoulders moved in a tiny little shrug, and Penny took that as a ‘yes.’ She took Jenzie’s hand and pulled her out of her chair, giving her a gentle shove toward where Shandra stood at the door. Helion stood up too, so fast that his chair fell over.

  The staffer at the counter said, “Hey, I’m going to call the police if this doesn’t settle down.”

  Penny gave the staffer a radiant smile. “No need. You. Helion?” She channeled all her dislike and anger into her next words, every bit of will and force she could muster. “Go away, and never come back.”

  And away he went. The door in Penny’s soul slammed very hard behind him, and Penny felt very, very good about it.

  She turned around, away from the shocked gaze of the froyo staffer, to meet Jenzie’s equally shocked gaze. Shandra, however, looked smug, which stopped confused remorse from taking the place of Penny’s fierce pleasure.

  “I knew you were the right person to call,” said Shandra. “I knew it. Robert did something right, for once.”

  “Are you all right?” Penny asked Jenzie. The lavender spirals spread off Jenzie’s fingers to the floor and she wanted to talk about it, but where to start? The colors fuzzing around her seemed strange, as if they were bleeding together with her surroundings. Was her soul damaged by something other than her erstwhile lover?

  “I don’t know.” Jenzie twisted her hands together. “I don’t know. I feel awful. I want to call Robert and see if I can get another treatment.”

  “Of course you feel awful,” said Shandra. “He was awful. We can take you home, you can relax a bit, and you’ll feel better.”

  “No, I want another treatment,” said Jenzie stubbornly. She fumbled in her bag until she found a phone.

  Shandra sighed. ”Stupid Robert.”

  ”I’ll take her, Shandra,” said Penny, watching Jenzie intently. Maybe if she could actually see the ‘treatment’ taking place, she could understand the rest of what was going on.

  “I suppose she’s not in any condition to go somewhere on her own,” said Shandra, her disgust unhidden. “Go ahead. Right back to Robert.”

  With a wary look, Jenzie said, “You can drop me off, but you don’t need to stay.”

  Penny fluttered a hand. “If that’s what you want, but I don’t mind waiting. I can bring you back after or take you home, whichever you want. Is the treatment hard? I don’t want to leave you in the lurch.”

  Jenzie hesitated. “You aren’t going to talk me out of it? Vanish stuff away? Shandra thinks the treatment’s bad for me.”

  Penny didn’t even glance at Shandra, keeping her sincere gaze fixed on Jenzie. “I don’t even know what the treatment is.”

  “Oh, okay,” sighed Jenzie, her shoulders slumping. She turned her attention to her phone and Penny let her gaze slide sideways to see Shandra’s disapproval.

  “It’ll be okay,” she lied encouragingly. “I’m sure they know what they’re doing there.”

  “Mph,” said Shandra. “I’m going home. Thanks for helping out, and have fun with Robert.” She went out the door.

  “He says I can come right away,” said Jenzie, a bright thread in her voice as she put her phone away. “I told him what you did, Penny. He doesn’t mind if you come, either.”

  “I didn’t think he would.”

  The ‘treatment’ consisted of a pair of cuffs around Jenzie’s wrist, plugged into a tablet computer that was in turn connected to a box the size of a child. Colored lights moved and flashed on the tablet screen, and Jenzie wept quietly as she looked at them. Her hands twitched in the cuffs. Robert stood beside her, wearing his amber glasses, watching both the tablet screen and Jenzie’s hands intently. If he noticed she was crying, he was too accustomed to it to feel uncomfortable.

  Penny, however, felt very uncomfortable with it. She didn’t know if she saw what Robert did, but it didn’t seem like something that any compassionate person could witness without being affected. The cuffs around Jenzie’s wrists drained the color from her aura, intensifying the draw as Jenzie wept harder. It took all of Penny’s willpower, and her promise to Jenzie, not to rip the tablet from her grip and fling it across the room. Instead, she stared at her own reflection in the mirror from her purse, looking at the way her own colors had been drained away,

  At last, Robert reached down and tapped the screen to end the treatment. Jenzie’s weeping had faded to just sniffles, and her aura was faded as if it had been left in the sun all summer. She looked up at Penny, wiped her nose with her hand as Robert uncuffed her, and said, “Thank you. I feel so much better now.”

  Branwyn wouldn’t hesitate in breaking the device, Penny thought. It was tempting. There was no way it could be doing something good. Helion had been right; when Jenzie’s soul was too drained for her to remain conscious anymore, she wouldn’t end up like Penny. She’d just die.

  But what good would breaking it do? There had to be software somewhere, and technical designs. Even if it was a prototype, that didn’t mean it was one of a kind, with no backups, no earlier models, no later models.

  Instead she patted Jenzie on the shoulder before drawing Robert away and out of earshot. Then, bluntly, she said, “What you’re doing to her is bad. It’s dangerous.”

  He frowned. “I have to disagree. We’re acquiring enormous amounts of information and we’re helping people feel better. And you yourself have clearly gone through something similar—”

  “I am not a role model!” Penny flared. “I don’t know what kind of information you’re getting, but the cost is too high.”

  “She called me, begging for help,” remarked Robert, growing more confident in the face of Penny’s temper. “Tell her the cost is too high. Speaking of which, I’d like to interview you about what you did to her stalker?”

  Penny stared at him for a moment, trying to decide if he was offering some kind of deal. No, no he wasn’t, she realized. He was just that tone deaf. She resisted telling him to go to hell and instead said, “I don’t think you’d do anything good with the information. Robert, I’m going to talk to the other members of the support group about what you’re doing, and what the ultimate consequences are.”

  “Feel free,” he said. “Nobody is required to participate. But you’re not a particularly good example of the supposed dangers of the trea
tment, are you?”

  “It’s not even a useful treatment for keeping the fae away,” pointed out Penny. “I still have one following me around. I still care about another one.”

  “But can they hurt you anymore?” asked Robert clinically.

  “Yes,” said Penny. “Yes, it still hurts.”

  “Ah,” said Robert. “More information. Thank you so much.”

  Penny had enough. “Jenzie, do you want me to take you home? I have to go.”

  Jenzie, staring at her hands, shook her head slowly. “I’ll take a cab later. Thank you for the ride here, though.”

  “Fine,” said Penny. “Take care of yourself.” Then she swept from the classroom door.

  In the hall beyond, Blaze was walking toward her, his face cold and distant, his hair like blue flames. Irritated at the sight of him, Penny said, “Oh, splendid. Here you are. Now is not really the time.” She raised her hand to swat him away and he darted forward, grabbing her wrist.

  “Don’t. I’m not here for you,” he said roughly. She realized he was angry. His hand was very hot against her skin. “I’ve been watching what your Robert is doing.”

  “He’s not ‘my’ Robert,” Penny interrupted, more annoyed. She yanked her hand out of his grip. “He’s doing something horrible, and he doesn’t care.”

  “It’s wasteful. Needlessly destructive.” He cracked his knuckles.

  Penny’s mood improved marginally. “Are you going to do something about it?”

  “Are you?”

  Tossing her hair over her shoulder, Penny said, “Yes. I’m going to tell people and offer them something better. Real help.”

  Blaze raised one eyebrow. “Oh?”

  Penny smiled at him. “What are you going to do?” She probably ought to not let the faerie hurt Robert, no matter how much it seemed like a good idea.

  “I’m going to talk to him,” said Blaze calmly, coldly, and moved past her.

  Penny hesitated, then began walking down the hall toward the building exit. She heard the lab door open and close behind her as Blaze went through.

  Shandra had everybody’s numbers, and Shandra was happy to help her spread the word, especially since Penny had something to offer other than just gossip. It helped a lot when Robert didn’t show up for the next meeting. It was like an admission of guilt. When the room stayed locked and they huddled outside in shock and bewilderment, calling a cell phone nobody answered, Penny had a solution. She invited them back to her house, made them all coffee and tea, and let Shandra take over the meeting.